


it makes me wonder

by something1d



Series: i'll still be your fool [1]
Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: How Do I Tag, M/M, Oops, larry stylinson - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-27
Updated: 2014-12-26
Packaged: 2017-12-30 16:28:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 22
Words: 76,367
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1020870
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/something1d/pseuds/something1d
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What do you get when you mix a socially awkward teenage mess with a boy who is, in essence, the personification of perfection?<br/>Well.</p><p>~ larry stylinson, high school au ~</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so let me explain. Or at least try to.  
> First off, THIS IS SET IN AMERICA. Because I know nothing about British schools or how any of that works, so let's pretend that everyone's American, yeah?  
> Second, this is going to have a few more parts but I'm not sure how many. We'll see.  
> Third, I'd like to thank Maddy for beta-ing and for putting up with my Louis-esque tendencies.  
> Happy reading xxx
> 
> Dedicated to J.A. Without him, this story wouldn't exist. ♡
> 
> Copyright © 2013 by something1d, all rights reserved.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> On the template that I originally wrote this story, I had used italics for emphasis and bold for headings and other such fancy lil things, but when I copied it onto ao3 those things just aren't showing up and I don't have the patience to go through the entire story and re-do all of that so. Hopefully most of this story will still make sense, even if it won't have the same effect :(
> 
> If you haven't read this story yet, there IS a sequel; except it's not really a sequel. This story is told from one point of view, while "someone to admire" is told from another. You can read either one you'd like, in whatever order you'd like. The order doesn't matter in the slightest. You can read only one, you can read both, you can read them together in a chapter-by-chapter way, you can read this one after the other, you can read this one before the other, whatever you'd like. So, yeah. Hope you like it!

August 2013

****

On the first day of school, Louis is blindsided. Quite literally.

How? Well.

Louis knew that junior year wasn't going to be easy, and he'd spent the summer trying to prepare himself -- mentally, at least -- for the all-nighters and stress to come. 

But, nothing could have prepared him for this.

Louis sometimes wonders, if people realize how quickly everything can change. So many things can happen in such little time. Things that he never thought could or would happen, have the power to twist his entire life, warp it so that nothing's the same anymore. Do people ever think about that?

He surely didn't.

Louis thinks, when he walks into class on the first day at seven a.m, that this is going to be just another year: mundane, ordinary, unexciting.

How very wrong he is.

**** 

Harry Styles. A name Louis had heard before, here and there. A name he hadn't paid much attention to, a face he had glanced at from time to time as he passed in the hall. He's on the water polo team, so naturally, he's athletic and all. And yeah, Louis's always known he's objectively good-looking, but he'd only ever seen him from a distance. Overall, he's not someone Louis had ever noticed very much. 

Pity, that.

Niall and Louis stumble into history mere seconds before the bell rings. Louis shoves Niall lightly. "If you hadn't spent fifteen minutes complaining about dropping all your m&ms on the floor at your locker, we wouldn't have had to fucking run our asses over here!"

Niall rolls his eyes. "They were perfectly good m&ms! It was such a waste, Lou, you should've let me eat them!"

Louis gapes at him. "They were on the floor."

Niall just stares at him expectantly. "So?"

Louis doesn't even dignify that with a response, and instead walks over to the desk nearest him and plops down in it. He's tired, he didn't eat breakfast, and he hates everything.

And it's only the first day.

"Everyone listen up!" is the first thing Mr. Stevens says to the chattering class, silencing the room immediately. "Get up from wherever you're sitting, I have a seating chart."

The class grumbles quietly, standing up and grouping against the back wall, waiting for Stevens to read out names.

"Abrams, Styles, Tomlinson, Payne," Stevens calls out, pointing to the first row on the right side of the room.

Louis sighs. He can already tell that this year is going to suck.

He makes his way over to his seat and drops his bag, sinking into the chair with a heavy feeling in his heart. It still hasn't quite hit that he's back at school.

He sighs again.

"Excuse me, sorry," a deep voice rumbles from behind him, interrupting Louis's thoughts. Louis holds back the urge to scoff in annoyance and slowly turns around; when he actually sees who's standing before him, his first thought is that he's looking at an angel.

No, really. He swears it's an angel.

Maybe it's the sleep deprivation talking.

The angel is actually a boy, a boy with wide green eyes, looking down at him expectantly. His hair is pushed back; had it not been held in place by a thin black headband, it'd be a halo of wild curls around his face. And fuck, he's beautiful. He's one of the most beautiful people Louis's ever seen, even. And Louis feels the butterflies in his stomach swoop from the second he lays eyes on him.

What scares Louis the most, though, in that moment, is that there's nothing Louis wants more than to run his fingers through the boy's golden brown locks, to see if they're really as soft as they look. And that's not normal. His heart feels like it's going to jump out of his chest, as cliche as that sounds, and the worst part is that Louis doesn't even know this person, and he already feels more attached to him than should be allowed.

Is that even possible?

Louis doesn't realize until then that those golden-green eyes are widening with uncertainty, eyebrows raised above them. Then, he realizes that he's been staring at this Greek god in human form for considerably longer than what is acceptable. And that's bad. Very, very bad.

"Hi," Louis manages to squeak out when he finds his voice. He swears there's golden light oozing out of this boy's pores; he's positively glowing and Louis is positively blinded by it.

"Uh." The boy scratches at the back of his neck. "Your bag. It's, um, kind of in the middle here." Louis looks down to see that yes, his bag is in fact right in the middle of the aisle, and his cheeks redden in embarrassment. "Oh, sorry," he mumbles, as he leans over to pull his backpack under his desk. "No worries," the boy says back, giving Louis a small smile before stepping past him and sitting down in the seat right in front of him.

Louis has to work to keep his mouth from hanging open.

Wasn't Harry Styles supposed to be sitting there?

And then it hits. 

That's Harry Styles?!

This certainly isn't the Harry Styles that Louis remembers from previous years. Harry Styles is supposed to be a cute tiny cherub with braces and high top converse. It's like he's gone from baby, cupcake Harry, to a person who looks like a statue carved out of gold. By the gods. From another planet.

He's stunning.

How the fuck could he have changed so drastically in two months? How had Louis not noticed this before? It has to be a new thing; Louis definitely would've remembered Harry's perfection had he seen it.

The classroom is loud, everyone talking amongst themselves as Stevens continues seating people. Louis catches Niall's eye, who smiles at him reluctantly, looking like he really doesn't want to be at school. Maybe even less than Louis.

Louis faces forward again, and tries with every fiber of his being to focus on not getting lost in Harry's back muscles.

"Harry!"

Harry turns around to face the doorway -- which is in the back right corner of the room, behind them -- and grins at a taller boy who's just walked in late. "Nick! How you been buddy?"

Louis's so fascinated by his grin that he's practically drooling. Mind you, Harry's face is barely a foot away from his, so Louis's getting a blast of his perfection full-force. Which is probably going to become an issue very soon, seeing as Harry probably already thinks he's a creep for staring earlier, and Louis is currently salivating over Harry's smile.

He has to notice that Louis' staring like a freak. He has to, there's no way he doesn't see it. Even knowing this, though, Louis can't look away.

Yeah, this is definitely going to be a problem.

Nick walks over to Harry's desk, clapping him on the back. "Ready for season?"

Nick plays water polo with Harry. Note: Nick is a questionable character. He can be a bit condescending about being a member of the team -- one might even say he's a douchebag, but that depends on the situation -- while Harry is sweet and funny and humble. Everyone likes Harry. Few like Nick. This is fact, and just happens to actually be something that Louis' always known about, since the beginning of sophomore year.

Harry grins even wider. "You know it!" He winks. Louis dies.

Nick then glances at Louis quickly, and nods at him in acknowledgement. "Hey Louis, long time no see!"

Nick also happened to be in Louis's European history class the year before. Louis thinks he is, quite frankly, unintelligent and irritating. So. Yeah.

Louis isn't a big fan of very many people, to be honest. Nick being one of them. Is it obvious?

That's not what Louis's really thinking about though. He's more concerned with the fact that Harry has turned around in his seat, facing Louis expectantly and waiting for his response to Nick's greeting. His face is so close, and Louis's body is on fire.

Louis smiles at Nick. "Hi Nick," he says quietly, afraid his voice might crack under the stress of being under Harry's scrutiny.

Harry turns back around to face Nick, and Louis's spirit deflates. He had been hoping for some sort of interaction.

Though, maybe it's good that they didn't speak. Louis definitely would've pissed himself if they did. 

Stevens calls for everyone to stop talking, and then talks about class expectations, requirements, the syllabus, and whatever the fuck else. Louis can't bring himself to care. He's already written this class off as one in which he won't be able to actually learn anything, or focus at all really; how's he supposed to concentrate with that sitting right in front of him?

At the end of class, Louis tries not to lose himself in the curve of Harry's arm muscles that flex as he lifts his backpack, and the fucking pen he's tucked behind his ear -- because who does that, really? Why must he torture Louis in this way? -- and walks toward Niall's desk. "Let's go," he says sharply, and Niall snorts. "School getting to you already?" he asks, as he finishes packing up.

Louis watches Harry as he laughs and shoves Nick playfully, while they walk out of the door surrounded by their friends. The sunlight that's coming in through the doorway hits Harry's body so that he looks like he's outlined in gold. He watches as Harry grins so widely at something Nick said that dimples form in his cheeks and his eyes scrunch up in the most adorable way. He watches as Harry glances at him, eyes a glimmer of emerald as they make eye contact -- which is when Louis blushes like mad, obviously -- and he watches as Harry walks away, talking to Nick about how he has math next and how he hates it, hates it so much.

Louis hates math too. Are they soulmates yet?

"Yeah," Louis says in response to Niall's question as they follow Harry and his friends out the door. "You have no idea."

****

Throughout the rest of his first day, Louis gets over it, eventually.

Sort of.

He goes to English, then environmental science, then psychology. He goes to his debate class, he eats lunch with Zayn, and it all feels normal and boring, the way school should be. He's almost forgotten all about Harry Styles and his own weird obsessive episode of that morning.

Almost.

Walking to his fifth period class, Louis's relieved; it's Spanish, his last class of the day. One more hour, and Louis will be able to go home and eat leftover Chinese food and pretend like school doesn't exist.

He's prepared for a calm, relaxed class. A class where he doesn't have to stress too much, which is how Spanish always is and always has been over the past few years he's taken it. 

But then he walks in. And he knows he's fucked. 

Because the first person he sees is Harry Styles. And he feels ambushed.

He didn't know Harry was going to be in this class. He didn't know that this sneak attack was going to happen, he didn't know that he was going to be so intensely infatuated with a complete stranger who isn't just in one of his classes, but two. He never agreed to this, he never signed up for this shit.

Louis can't really breathe, and this is not fair.

So much for relaxing.

Ms. Felise, just like Stevens, starts calling out names and seating people. 

And, guess where Louis ends up?

Yeah. Behind Harry Styles.

Not directly behind him this time -- Louis can't decide whether that's good or bad, it's kind of both -- but three seats behind him. It's kind of good actually, because then at least Louis won't directly be attacked by Harry's golden-ness twice a day.

But then, when Harry laughs at something someone said -- Lou Teasdale, actually, who sits right behind him -- and makes accidental eye contact with Louis for what feels like the millionth time that day, Louis thinks his skin might just burn off right then and there, and, well. That's that.

It's going to be a long year.

****

September 2013

****

Louis's gotten into a sort of routine.

Go to history. Be ignored by Harry Styles. Go to other classes. Eat lunch. Go to Spanish. Be ignored by Harry Styles. Go home and drown all sorrows in food. Repeat.

The sad part is, it's actually kind of a comfortable schedule for Louis. He doesn't have to talk to Harry or make a fool of himself, but he does get a prime view, when it comes to staring at him when he's not looking.

So yeah, Louis's perfectly content silently admiring from afar and not having to worry about embarrassing himself on a daily basis. 

Over the course of the last month, Louis has found out that not only is Harry Styles on the water polo team, but he's also an executive editor for the school newspaper. And he's extremely smart too. Which sucks for Louis, because it all hurts so bad. Harry's too perfect to be real.

Louis thought that this issue would go away, that by now, he'd have gotten used to being in the presence of an angel for two hours a day. He hasn't.

But that's beside the point. The point is, Louis likes this, knowing what to expect. He hasn't been blindsided since day one, which is a pretty good thing, isn't it?

But. This amazing track record of his is completely and totally ruined one day, when he walks into Spanish and finds out that they're playing a game for the first half of class, a game that Ms. Felise claims will help them memorize the captials of Spanish-speaking countries. 

She's placed twelve cards on the overhead, so that all they can see on the projector screen are black squares. "Behind each card," she explains, "is either a country or a capital. Each team is going to try and match as many countries with capitals as possible. So we're going to split the room up into halves, the three rows on my left will be Team One and the other three rows will be Team Two. Ready?"

Harry turns around to face Lou Teasdale behind him, and does a fist pump. "Lessgo! Team One for the win!"

Louis resists the urge to simultaneously roll his eyes and grin. He's so cute.

So they play, and Harry gets super into it. When Louis's turn comes around, Team One is in the lead by one point, and there are only four cards left, and no one knows what's behind any of them. Louis is massively terrified. If he loses this for his team, for Harry, then he's screwed and he'll never be able to forgive himself (Okay, he might be thinking about this game in too dramatic of terms. But it feels like a big deal, okay?).

"Okay Louis, which ones would you like to pick?" Ms. Felise asks.

Louis's scared. "Um," he says quietly, and he just decides to go with his gut. "Card number four and.... number nine?" 

Ms. Felise flips over card four, and it says "Peru." She starts to flip over card number nine with exaggerated slowness that's supposed to be funny -- Louis just finds it irritating, seeing as he's agitated enough already -- and when she finally flips it over and it says "Lima," Team One erupts in cheers.

"CLUTCH!" Harry yells, to Louis's intense shock. "LOUIS IS CLUTCH!"

And yeah, this is when the whole Louis-getting-caught-off-guard thing happens. Because Harry decides to get up out of his seat, and jog down the row to Louis's desk. He lifts his hand up for a high-five, and Louis just stares at it for a few seconds in disbelief before he remembers how high-fives work, and lifts up his left hand to slap it against Harry's. "Louis you're so clutch, we won!" Harry yells to the entire room, not necessarily to Louis in particular. 

The rest of the class period is a muffled affair for Louis. He doesn't remember what they did for the rest of the hour, he doesn't even remember what prize they got for winning. All he remembers is examining the hand that Harry Styles high-fived, trying to see if any bits of Harry's gold have rubbed off on him.

****

October 2013

****

"Please? You have to."

Louis shakes his head furiously. "I most definitely do not."

Zayn widens his eyes pleadingly as he chews on his sandwich at lunch. "Please come with me Louis! Think about it; you're basically in love with Harry Styles, so like, why would you pass up an opportunity to see him in a speedo?"

Louis reddens as he firmly presses his lips together, shaking his head again. 

Zayn's on the school newspaper, and he's in charge of writing all of the stories about the boys' water polo games for the season. He has to go to every single game and write about the star players, the scored goals, everything. 

That very day, there just so happens to be a game after school. And Zayn wants Louis to go with him.

"Louis why won't you come with me?!"

"Because, Zayn," Louis says sharply, "He's going to think I'm fucking gross or something. He already thinks I'm weird, what do you think he'd do if he saw me at his fucking water polo game?"

"But Louis, it's not like you're going alone! I'm there because I have to be, to write the story! And he knows it too, he knows I'm on the newspaper and that I have to write about all the games! So if you're with me, it won't be weird!"

"False, it'd be very weird. I'd be the awkward friend that tagged along to stare at practically naked boys."

Zayn rolls his eyes. "Louis stop being so fucking dramatic and just come with me, it's not that big of a deal. Plus, it's the first home game of the season!"

Louis hesitates. Zayn seizes the opportunity. "Think about it," he hisses, so that no one around them can hear, "Harry Styles. Speedo. Do you really want to miss that?"

Louis sighs, closing his eyes. "What time?"

****

"I can't believe I'm fucking doing this," Louis mutters to Zayn as they climb up the steps to the bleachers by the pool.

Zayn's just grinning gleefully, sitting down and pulling out his folder with his story notes in it. "Just sit back and enjoy Lou. Your boy will be out soon."

"He's not my boy," Louis hisses, trying to act like he's not the slightest bit excited. He's sure he fails tremendously.

Zayn makes some notes while Louis silently watches parents and friends file in. "Zayn," Louis says quietly. "You know that I can barely handle being around him in class."

Zayn snorts. "No shit."

Louis glares at him before continuing. "If I can barely handle him in class, then how am I supposed to handle this?"

Zayn shrugs, continuing to write.

"You're no help."

Zayn doesn't say a word.

Louis lets out a huff of irritation, and leans forward with his elbows on his thighs, resting his chin in his hands. This is such bullshit. 

The visiting team is waiting on a bench off to the side, getting a pep talk from their coach. The home team is yet to come out of the locker room. 

Louis rubs his temples. He can do this. He'll be fine. He won't lose it. He'll be perfectly normal and civilized, and he won't go insane. Nope. No sir-ee. He is totally, 100% not insane.

And then Harry walks through the gated entrance to the pool and Louis's train of thought falls off the edge of a cliff. 

He's fully clothed, which Louis simultaneously thanks and curses the universe for, and he's carrying his water polo bag as he saunters past everyone on the bleachers, not looking up at the people once. His eyebrows are furrowed in concentration, as if he's intensely thinking about something, and Louis squeaks, because he looks so fucking hot that it's not fair.

Zayn giggles beside him. Louis wants to smack him in the face.

Harry pushes the locker room door open and disappears through it, and Louis relaxes, exhaling loudly. Zayn is positively cackling. "You're so gone!" he says loudly between snorts, fake-wiping tears of laughter off of his cheeks. 

Louis just crosses his arms and pouts, staring down at his feet and refusing to look up again until Zayn stops laughing.

****

After fifteen minutes of waiting, during which Louis decides to get his Spanish homework out of the way, Zayn smacks his arm quickly. "Prepare to die!" he whispers in a sing-song voice, eyes focused on the far side of the pool.

Louis's head shoots up, and he sees them.

The varsity water polo team is walking out of the locker room, heading over to the bench opposite the visiting team and stretching, robes and towels in hand. 

Louis' body goes rigid.

Last to walk out -- as if the universe is fucking messing with him by saving him for last -- is Harry Styles, who runs a hand through his hair as he confidently pads over to his team.

In a speedo.

Nothing but a speedo.

Louis has lost all ability to comprehend anything and everything that exists in the world in except for Harry and his speedo. 

Zayn is trying to hold back his laughter, but it's not really working. Louis still wants to smack him in the face.

Harry's stretching his arms above his head, his abs flexing as he does so. The muscles in his legs are so prominent and fuck it all, damn it all to hell because fuck. 

He turns around to lightly punch a teammate on the shoulder, and grins at whoever the fuck it is -- because Louis doesn't care -- and Louis gets a full view of his back muscles, and they're even better than Louis had imagined they'd be.

Fuck.

The boys hop into the pool to warm up, and Louis notices that every time after Harry ducks his head underwater, he flicks his hair out of his face in such a way that Louis loses all feeling in his body. He doesn't even want to know what his own facial expression is right now.

Harry swims over to one side of the pool and grabs a ball, and decides to tread his way over to the side of the pool closest to Louis, because of course. Fan-fucking-tastic. The universe is out to get him.

From here, Louis can the creases in his forehead as he squints against the sunlight in concentration, the golden-green of his eyes, the way he bites his lip before he swings his arm around to the side and throws and catches the ball with his partner. 

At this point, the initial shock has worn off and Louis's getting dangerously close to hyperventilating. "Zayn, what if he sees me and thinks I'm a creep?"

Zayn turns to Louis, eyes wide with sincerity. "Lou, it's okay, yeah? Calm down. Nothing bad's gonna happen, he's not going to think you're a creep."

Harry's bicep flexes as he throws the ball again, in that hook-like motion that water polo players do.

"You don't know that!" Louis whispers frantically. 

Zayn sighs. "No, don't worry. You're fine. Just enjoy the view."

Louis exhales, trying to calm himself. He nods. "Okay, yeah. Okay."

When their warm-up is over, the team grabs their caps and huddles around the coach for a quick pep talk. Louis tries not to ogle Harry's ass as they do so, and fails.

And so, a couple of minutes later, the game begins. The seven players for the first quarter get in the water, while the rest of the team stands or sits on the bench -- which happens to be right in front of Louis and Zayn, no joke -- and watch. Harry's not playing; instead, he grabs a black robe to put on.

The next few seconds or so feel like they last a lifetime.

Because Harry glances to his left, and makes direct eye contact with Louis.

Louis squeaks, and tries not to look too deer in headlights-esque.

Harry watches him for a moment, and then a slow sideways grin spreads across his face, eyes twinkling mischievously in the sunlight. He wraps his golden body in the dark material, stretching his muscles as he does so and smiling at Louis as if to say, "You like what you see?"

Oh yes, Louis does. He really, really does, ever so much. 

Louis looks away quickly, cheeks reddening. When he dares to sneak a glance back up a few seconds later, Harry is watching the game again. 

Louis slaps Zayn's leg. "Zayn," he hisses. "Zayn did you see that?"

Zayn looks up from where he'd been making notes on the goal that the home team just scored. "See what?"

"He just," Louis starts, and then pauses to collect his thoughts. "He, he just looked at me! He saw me here, he knows I'm here for sure, and he smiled at me Zayn!"

Zayn laughs lightly. "That's good then, isn't it?"

"No, it isn't!"

Zayn looks at him confusedly. 

"Because now he knows I'm here, and he knows I'm a creep because I was watching him and he saw me watch him!"

Zayn just looks at him for a beat before going back to taking notes. "Don't be stupid," is all he says, and Louis's so out of breath from what just happened that he can't even come up with a witty reply.

****

It's been a week after the water polo game, and Louis still hasn't gotten over it.

Every time he sees Harry, his thoughts disappear and all that's left is speedo, speedo, speedo.

It's quite annoying, actually. And it's especially annoying because he's still thinking about it on the bleak Monday morning following the week of the game, as he trudges to his locker and dreads the week of school to come.

Louis's weekend was hectic. He didn't really have much time to rest, he was always out and about and doing something or other, at all times. He barely got any sleep. And now, he has to deal with Harry's existence again, for five more days.

Will it ever end?

He runs into Niall in the locker hall, and they both hobble off to history together, neither of them saying a word. It's like they both know that neither of them are in the mood to speak. 

Niall sighs once they get to the room, and pats Louis on the back before heading off to his own seat.

Louis starts walking down the row to his desk. Harry's already there, slouched over in his seat. He looks as exhausted as Louis feels.

Louis buries his face in his arms, wanting nothing more than to go back to bed. He feels absolutely awful. He's nearly asleep when Stevens's loud voice makes him jump.

"You're getting into groups today and doing this worksheet. Each row is a group. Get to work."

He sets the pile of worksheets on a stool in the front of the room and heads back to his small office in the back of the room.

Louis reddens. He's in a group with Harry.

Fuck.

"Fuck" seems to be the only word Louis uses anymore. He blames Harry.

They all get their worksheets and clump together in their corner of the room, Harry sitting in front of Louis once more. "So, what are we doing?" one girl asks the group.

"Well, we have to discuss America's foreign policy under Jefferson," Harry says huskily -- and Louis thinks he might die because wow -- "So we should definitely talk about the Embargo Act."

And so it goes. The group fills out their worksheet quite quickly, and Louis's thankful it's over because he can't put up with much more of Harry's intelligent-talk. He's dangerously close to having a heart attack.

"Hey Louis!" Niall calls out as he walks over. Louis ducks his head, mentally willing Harry to not turn around. Now is not the time to draw attention to himself. 

"Have you started the homework?"

Louis rolls his eyes. "What homework Niall?"

"The history stuff due tomorrow! We have to finish our group project, write the essays, and do those three other worksheets, remember?"

Louis groans. Right, those. "Ugh, I haven't started those! I'm so screwed, I haven't even finished reading the entire unit!"

And see, this is where Louis legitimately feels like his life is ending.

Because: "Me too!"

And that didn't come out of Niall's mouth.

Louis whips around and sees Harry Styles turned toward him in his seat, eyes bright and a smile on his face. His cheeks are rosy and his eyes are scrunched up and and Louis's never seen anything more perfectly perfect in his life.

"I have to read two chapters too! And write the essays!" he continues.

It takes Louis a second to find his voice, but when he does, he surprises even himself. "Oh my gosh, it's going to be so awful, I have no idea what I'm going to do."

"Same!" Harry says, smile widening. "It's going to be a long night."

Harry turns back around to continue writing, and Louis is so fucking happy that his heart is going to explode and ooze gold all over the room.

"Louis," Niall says quietly, and Louis turns around to face him slowly, almost forgetting that he'd been there. "Yeah Ni?" Louis says dreamily, a huge smile on his face. He feels like if he could look in a mirror at that moment, he'd see hearts in his eyes.

Niall looks at him skeptically, then glances at Harry -- who is still writing, his back to the two of them -- and then looks back at Louis. He scoffs, rolls his eyes, and walks away, sitting down in his seat and pouting at Louis from afar, being the lovable idiot he is.

Louis's so ecstatic that he can't bring himself to care.

****

When Louis walks into Spanish later that day, he's telling himself not to get his hopes up.

Just because he talked to me in history this morning doesn't mean that he'll talk to me again. It was probably a one time thing. Forget it.

Louis rushes to his seat, scurrying past Harry, who is already in his, and Harry doesn't so much as glance at him.

Even though Louis knew that this was going to happen, it doesn't stop his heart from sinking in his chest. He sighs as he sits down, rubbing his temples.

The first half of the class period passes by slowly. They peer review each other's tests that they had taken the day before and hand them in. Louis walks up the row to put his test on the podium at the front of the room, passing Harry, who's talking to Lou Teasdale. He doesn't look up. When Louis turns around to walk back to his seat, however, Harry's standing in the middle of the aisle with his back to Louis; there's no way he can get past him to sit down.

Does this mean he has to talk to him? He has to ask him to move?

Dread pools in Louis' stomach. He steels himself. It has to be done.

He taps Harry on the arm lightly. "Excuse me, sorry," he mumbles, and Harry jumps. "Oh, sorry!" he squeaks, and Louis blushes, fighting the urge to look back as he walks by.

"Wait, Louis!" Harry says, and another wave of heat floods Louis's cheeks. Louis looks back over his shoulder. Harry's stopped talking to Lou -- who looks quite annoyed that their conversation ended so abruptly -- and is looking at him earnestly. "Yeah?" Louis says, in as steady of a voice as he can muster.

Harry pauses, and then smiles. "I'm so bogged down for history tonight, I don't even know what I'm going to do."

Didn't they have this same conversation this morning?

...Fuck it. Louis will take it.

"Me too! I did some of my worksheets during fourth period though, so at least I've got those out of the way!" Louis blurts out, not really knowing what he's saying.

"Oh my gosh, so did I! I still have to write my essays though!"

"I do too, I'm so not looking forward to those. And reading is going to suck tonight."

"Ugh, I have so much of that too! Around forty pages I think." Harry's still smiling.

"And I have an environmental science test tomorrow too, so...kinda screwed," Louis says the last two words in a sing-songy voice, grinning at Harry. Harry laughs. Louis's never heard a more beautiful sound in his life.

"That's so rough," Harry says sympathetically, shaking his head, and Louis's about to respond when Lou impatiently taps Harry on the arm, taking his attention away from Louis, and asks him something. Louis doesn't hear what she says.

Louis's face falls in disappointment. They had such a great conversation going too.

Even so, Louis's buzzing with happiness; they just talked. They had a conversation. Two times in one day. Louis honestly never even thought this would happen. Ever.

Louis returns to his seat and is smiling, beaming even, despite himself.

Today is a day that should go down in history.

Louis doesn't know what's sadder; the fact that it took two months for them to have a conversation, or the fact that Louis's so excited about this that he can't breathe.

Louis doesn't stop smiling for the rest of the day.


	2. Chapter 2

Louis has a test and he's going to be late. 

He's speedwalking, chanting fuck fuck fuck under his breath. He'd stayed up so late the night before to study for his big history exam that he slept through his alarm. Thankfully, he woke up only fifteen minutes after he was supposed to, and he managed to get to school fairly quickly.

He's close though. Very, very close. And if he's late, Stevens won't let him take the test. He'll fail him and then Louis will cry and drown in his own misery.

Louis's practically running at this point; he climbs the stairs, rounds a corner -- the door's in sight now -- and walks so fast that he thinks his shoes are going to fall off.

He walks into the classroom before the bell rings, and he breaths out a sigh of relief. He scuttles over to his desk and opens up his backpack, taking out his essays and the packet of worksheets that he did the night before. Everyone's currently dropping them on their respective piles in the front of the room.

He staples his papers together and walks over to turn them in, passing Harry as he goes. Harry glances at him -- which is meaningless, Louis's right in front of him, there's no way he couldn't see him -- but doesn't say anything.

The bell rings, and Stevens walks out of his office. "Everyone sit down, nothing but pencils on your desks please!"

Louis makes his way over to his desk and pulls out a pencil. His feet are nervously tapping on the carpet, and he's still breathing hard from running to class. 

Harry's wearing a really soft-looking sweater today, and Louis scoffs quietly. That's too distracting to be allowed. 

And then Stevens places a test on his desk, and Louis braces himself. It's go-time.

****

Louis's really tired by the time he gets to Spanish. The test was kind of difficult -- Louis hadn't read one whole chapter though, so that's probably why -- but Louis doesn't really care about what grade he'll get on it anymore. All he knows is that it's over, which means that he'll be able to take a nap when he gets home. 

Harry is standing at the desk in front of Louis's, talking to the boy who's sitting in it -- his name's Drew, and he's also on the water polo team -- when Louis walks into the room. He's eating a sandwich, and also is, again, right in the middle of the aisle, with his back to Louis. Louis has to tap him on the shoulder again to get by. 

Harry scoots off to the side for Louis to walk by, but doesn't say anything, just continues listening to Drew talk about whatever he was talking about. Louis sits down and tries to not look at Harry, focusing on his desk and his shoes and the hem of his sweater. He picks at a few loose strings. He has to buy new clothes; everything he has right now is coming apart at the seams. 

He dares to look up, and is met with a heart-stopping sight.

Harry Styles is looking at him. Drew is talking, but Harry's looking at Louis.

Oh dear.

Louis fights the pink that's creeping its way to his cheeks and looks down, frantically pulling at the loose strings on his sweater even harder. 

"Louis," Harry says suddenly, and yeah, Louis's basically dead.

To look up or to not look up? To face certain embarrassment by having Harry see his tomato-red face, or to ignore this opportunity?

Louis wants to smack himself silly.

He decides to risk it, and slowly looks up at Harry, who's still watching him carefully. "Hi Harry," Louis says quietly, giving him a small smile.

"What'd you think of the test?" Harry asks. He's not smiling; his eyes are curious this time. Louis can't get a read on him.

"...Let's not even talk about it," Louis says, and Harry laughs and Louis feels golden inside. 

"But seriously though," Louis says after Harry stops laughing, "I didn't read any of chapter twelve, so I got every single question about the War of 1812 wrong."

Harry nods earnestly. "Those were the hardest part! I mean, I read all of the chapters, but I still thought that was the hardest part of the test!"

Louis grins. "It was seriously ridiculous."

Before Harry can respond, Lou walks up to the two of them. "Are you guys talking about the history test?"

Harry nods, turning to face Lou. 

Lou shrugs. "I thought it was easy."

Louis's brows pull together. "I don't know, I mean, I thought it was pretty hard."

Harry nods, looking at Louis. "So did I."

Lou shrugs again, and walks back to her desk, and then Harry follows her back to his own.

Louis sighs. 

But, whatever. Louis's heart is going double time. His face is still burning, and he's hoping it doesn't show too much, but Harry just makes his entire day. He walks out of Spanish class feeling giddy.

****

"Louis you need to calm the fuck down."

Zayn is getting his math textbook out of his locker, talking to Louis, who's currently buzzing with energy beside him. "Zayn, I can't calm down! Ever since Monday and yesterday, I just can't!"

"Harry Styles acknowledging your existence shouldn't make you this happy."

"Shhh!" Louis hushes frantically. "Don't say his name so loud, someone might hear! And it's not just him acknowledging me, it's him acknowledging me over the course of two consecutive days! Two of them, Zayn!"

Zayn rolls his eyes. "You need help."

Louis ignores the snub, and just continues eating from his bag of pretzels while bouncing on his toes in the locker hall. It's nearly empty; three or four people will pass by in clumps on occasion, but for the most part, no one's really there. 

"Hey Louis, did we have any environmental science work due for-"

"Have you seen his eyes, Zayn? Like, really looked at his eyes? They're so fucking gorgeous."

Zayn sighs. "I was asking you a question."

"They're like green with these flecks of gold in them, and the gold shines so bright when he's in the sun, Zayn, you wouldn't believe it."

Zayn huffs impatiently, slamming his locker door shut and shouldering his backpack. He looks like he's about to tell Louis off some more, but instantly, his facial expression goes from irritated to amused; it changes so quickly that if Louis had blinked, he would've missed it. 

"Lou," Zayn says quietly, eyes wide. "I think you're going to want to stop talking about Harry Styles now."

"Why should I? He's so fun to talk about," Louis says with a dazed smile on his face, shoving another pretzel in his mouth.

"Because," Zayn continues in his quiet, even tone, fighting the grin that's about to break out across his face, "He's right there. Behind you."

Louis stops chewing, and he feels his face becoming warm. "...What?"

Zayn nods, and Louis turns around to see that Harry is, in fact, right there. He's walking with Nick, explaining something excitedly, with all kinds of hand motions and facial expressions and he's so. Fucking. Cute.

And then while he's talking, his eyes meet Louis' and he pauses for a bit -- just watching him, not saying anything -- before turning back to Nick and resuming his conversation.

"Eep," Louis squeaks as he turns around to face Zayn -- who's grinning widely -- and fights the urge to look back again. Louis waits until Harry's voice has passed, and afterwards, glances over to watch Harry and Nick walk away.

"Louis you're stupid," Zayn says as he takes his phone out.

"Oh my fucking god Zayn, did you see that?!" Louis whispers, ignoring Zayn's rude comment, and then all of a sudden, his hands are moving on their own accord and his pretzels go flying everywhere.

Everywhere.

Louis stares at the floor in shock, watching his pretzels roll every which way, and then after a moment, Zayn bursts into laughter.

"What the fuck was that?" he asks incredulously.

Louis's still staring at the ground. "I...I don't know. My hands just...I lost control of them. They just. Moved. And. My food's gone."

Zayn just laughs even harder. "You fucking spaz, oh my god this is so great. Harry Styles made you spill your food all over the locker hall, you're pathetic!" 

Louis pouts. "At least he didn't see!"

Zayn nods, claps Louis on the back. "Yeah, at least you've got that much." He snorts. "Still though. That was ridiculous. And that happened all because Harry Styles walked by? Fuck, I can't imagine how spazzy you are in class, when he's sitting right in front of you!"

Before Louis can respond, the bell rings, and Louis sticks his tongue out at Zayn and walks away without another word.

****

At six thirty the next morning, Louis is being forced to go to a ceremony.

Okay, so yeah, maybe it's a ceremony that's honoring him and sixty-some other students for being "academic leaders" or whatever, and yes, there's going to be food, so it should be nice and fun, right?

Wrong. Nothing that requires being at school at six thirty in the morning is fun.

Louis gets to school bleary-eyed and angry. He's wearing a collared shirt and dress pants -- because the invitation clearly stated that casual attire was not allowed -- and he feels really uncomfortable. What he wouldn't give to be wearing his favorite pair of sweats right now.

And the worst part about all of this is that he knows that Harry Styles was invited to this thing too, and that Louis will have to put up with seeing him in fancy clothes at this disgusting time of day.

It's really, truly awful. Honestly. 

When Louis walks into the cafeteria, where the podium and all of the chairs are set up, he finds Zayn inside already, talking to a few others. "Hey Z!" Louis calls out in a purposely-obnoxious voice, and Zayn turns to face him, unimpressed. "Louis, I don't like it when you call me Z."

Louis laughs. "That's why I do it, duh."

Zayn rolls his eyes, but his lips perk up into a tiny smile. "Whatever. So. Are you ready?"

"For what?"

"This," Zayn says, gesturing to the massive room. Parents and other family members are already trickling into the seats set up for the audience. The students surrounding Louis and Zayn are chattering in the closed-off area behind the podium, waiting to find out where they're sitting and how they're going to be lined up when they walk in. 

Louis shrugs. "Not a big deal, really. All we're doing is walking in, sitting down and listening to people give speeches for a bit, and then going up when our names are called and getting our awards. Easy as pie."

Zayn raises his eyebrows. "I mean, yeah, it'll be easy for me. I don't think it's going to be that easy for you, though."

Louis tilts his head in confusion. "How? It's nothing, Z."

Zayn ignores the nickname. "Because that's going to be watching you."

Louis turns to where Zayn is pointing and feels a strange sense of deja vu, because his eyes snap to an angel standing a few yards behind him, and my oh my is he pretty.

Louis's just lucky he doesn't have anything in his hands at the moment. They're on the verge of shaking uncontrollably. It'd be the pretzel incident all over again.

Harry is standing there, adjusting the bowtie resting on his collar. He's talking to Nick, smiling so wide that his eyes are scrunched up again. His cheeks are dimpling and his eyes are bright and sparkling, and Louis can't help but wonder: how the fuck can someone look so good this early in the fucking morning?

It's sorcery. That's the only logical answer. 

"Oh. Right. That." Louis mutters quietly, and Zayn grins wickedly. 

They stand there in silence for a bit, before Louis speaks up again.

"Zayn," Louis whines, not taking his eyes off of Harry and the gold emanating from his entire being. "He's sparkling, how am I going to walk up to the podium in front of everyone without falling?"

"Okay, one, did you just say he's sparkling? Did you just pull some freaky Twilight shit on me? Unless you're Bella Swan and he's Edward Cullen, he is not sparkling."

"But Zayn, he is though, look at him, he's fucking glowing I swear -"

"Secondly," Zayn says loudly, eyeing Louis warningly. "You're going to be fine." His voice softens here, and his eyes widen in earnest. "Don't worry about it."

Louis nods, and tries not to worry about it.

It doesn't work.

****

It doesn't help when Louis is told that Harry's going to be sitting directly in front of him during the ceremony. 

Just. Really? Really? This has to be some kind of sick joke. 

Why does this always happen to him?

And it just keeps getting worse because as they're lining up to walk into the cafeteria, Louis keeps making accidental eye contact with Harry, who's standing about ten people in front of him. And sometimes, he'll turn around to find Harry looking in his direction, and their eyes will meet and Louis will blush and look away or distract himself by talking to Zayn about something irrelevant just to have something to do and it's so awkward.

This shouldn't be allowed.

During the ceremony itself, Louis has a hard time concentrating on what's going on. For obvious reasons. 

While they're sitting there and names are being called, Harry keeps turning around to talk to the boy sitting right next to Louis, Larson, and he glances at Louis every time he turns around with a twinkle in his eye, but he doesn't acknowledge him.

Louis's body is overheated and he is mentally exhausted. He can't handle this, he can't handle it at all.

When they call Harry's name for him to go up and get his award, Harry takes a deep breath and fixes his bowtie before standing up. His hands are shaking slightly, and he looks nervous, and Louis thinks it's so, so endearing.

When Louis's name is called, he holds his breath and hopes for the best.

He walks up to the front of the room and smiles at the teacher handing him his certificate, shaking her hand and thanking her before sitting down.

As soon as he sits down, he exhales loudly, relieved. He catches Zayn's eye from two seats to the right, and Zayn smirks at him, making eyes at Harry, who's still sitting quietly in front of them. Louis widens his eyes at Zayn frantically, shaking his head. Zayn covers his mouth to muffle his giggles.

What matters here is that Louis didn't fall, knock anything over, or look stupid (he hopes) in front of everyone; more importantly, in front of Harry. He'll take it as a success.

****

"What'd he do when I got up there?" Louis asks Zayn during the reception after the ceremony, while they're munching on donuts and bagels.

"I dunno," Zayn mumbles through his mouthful of bagel. "He was in front of me. Not like I could see his face."

Louis pouts. "You didn't see anything at all?"

Zayn shakes his head. "He was just facing forward, like everyone else."

"You couldn't see his face for sure?"

Zayn rolls his eyes and shakes his head again, taking another bite out of his bagel. 

Louis huffs and crosses his arms. Why does he care so much? He's being an idiot.

No, the better question is, Louis asks himself as he watches someone take a picture of Harry and Nick from across the room -- why is this his life?

****

The next day, while Louis is walking into the locker hall to find Zayn, he's especially wary. He's scanning the faces walking past him, so that this time, he won't be caught off guard if Harry shows up out of nowhere.

He's quite proud of himself for being prepared, actually. This way, he won't panic. And pretzels won't explode.

He's doing this solely for the good of the pretzels. Obviously.

Louis almost gets to Zayn's locker without incident before low and behold, the life-ruiner himself appears before Louis's eyes, walking in the opposite direction.

Louis tries to keep a straight face and fails. 

He glances at Harry, and at that very moment, Harry looks up, because of course. Louis looks away, and then when they get closer, he looks up again. Harry is still watching him, as if he's contemplating something. Louis actually thinks that Harry might say hi to him, or at least nod in acknowledgement, but then Louis looks away as they pass by each other, and when he looks up again, Harry's gone. 

Louis pouts his way to Zayn's locker, feeling slightly hollow inside.

****

Later that day, at lunch, Louis is being dragged around against his will.

"Stan I don't want to go there!"

"Louis, come on. I haven't seen you in ages, just come hang out with us!"

Stan's an editor on the school newspaper -- Louis feels like everyone's on the newspaper except for him -- and all of the editors have lunch in room six every day, which is where the kids on the newspaper staff have class and do their writing. They just eat, hang out, do homework, talk, listen to music, etc. Louis's been in there once or twice in previous years, and has always felt extremely out of place. 

"Stan, I'm not a part of the newspaper! I can't go in there!"

Stan's currently got Louis by the wrist, and is pulling him down a set of stairs. "No one will care, Lou! People who aren't on the paper come in to hang out all the time. Plus, it's not like you've just shown up, I'm bringing you!"

Louis sighs, knowing that arguing with Stan is futile. He's still annoyed though.

Finally, they get to room six, and Louis's slightly surprised at the sheer amount of people inside; there are probably more than twenty students there. Instead of desks, there are three large couches, and desktop computers and chairs line the right and opposite walls. On the left side of the room, there are two small offices that resemble cubicles. One of the doors is open, but the door of the other one is shut tight. Louis sees a few people that he recognizes, and they wave to him, and he relaxes a bit, feeling more comfortable when no one gives him odd looks for being there. He peers through the window of the closed office from across the room, wondering who's inside and why the door is closed, and his stomach lurches because then he sees and just what the fuck.

He might have forgotten that Harry's an editor. Which is stupid, because how could anyone forget anything about Harry Styles?

By being stupid like Louis, that's how.

Louis resists the urge to facepalm as he catches a glimpse of Harry through the cubicle window, leaning back on one of those chairs that have wheels on them. He's got his legs up on the desk, and is pushing himself back and forth, grinning and talking to Drew and Lou Teasdale. 

Then, Louis realizes that he's staring quite intently, and figures that he should probably look away before Harry sees him and thinks he's a stalker.

"Hey Louis, you alright?" 

Louis turns around to see Stan watching him curiously. Louis nods. "Yeah, yeah I'm fine. I, erm, I think I should go though, I think Niall has something of mine that I need to get back, so -"

Stan grabs Louis's arm and drags him over to one of the seats by the computer desks, and pushes him into it. "Louis Tomlinson, you aren't going anywhere today. We are going to hang out and that is that."

"But - "

"No. You're staying here. Plus, I need to study for my biology test I have next period, so you have to quiz me."

Louis quirks an eyebrow, grinning. "So that's why you want me here Stanley? To use me to help you get good grades? I'm offended."

Stan rolls his eyes, smiling, and lightly shoves Louis. "You know that's not what I meant. But will you help me study?"

Louis glances through the window of the cubicle again, seeing Harry jot something down on a piece of paper before tucking his pen behind his ear, and takes a deep breath.

He turns back to Stan. "Sure."

****

"No you idiot, that's not what a fucking ecosystem is!" Louis nearly shouts between bouts of laughter after Stan tells him that an ecosystem resembles a toilet. Stan said, however, that instead of flushing water throughout it like a toilet does, it sucks the happiness out of life and is the sole cause of the world's misery.

Louis and Stan are cracking up, shaking with laughter in their seats despite the stupidity of the joke. Stan wipes tears off of his cheeks, and gasps, "I don't give a shit, I'm sick of this! Bio's stupid. I don't know why I'm taking it. I'm done studying."

Louis fake-throws Stan's textbook at him, cackling. "Yeah, I don't know why you're taking it either! You're awful at it!"

Stan fake gasps. "Louis William Tomlinson, you take that back!"

Louis crosses his arms. "Never."

And then Louis doesn't hear Stan's reply, because the door of the cubicle creaks open, and Louis's gaze immediately snaps in its direction.

And guess who steps out?

Yeah, Harry Styles.

Louis tries not to look at him, but he just can't keep his eyes away. Harry darts into the other cubicle, grabs a bag off of the desk, mutters a few words to a small, short boy named Jack -- who's sitting at the desk -- and then returns to his original one, slamming the door shut behind him. He still hasn't seen Louis.

"Hey ladies!" Jack shouts from his seat behind the cubicle's desk, his friends sniggering behind him, "Harry Styles is changing his clothes in the office!"

Louis's body goes numb.

What? No. He's not changing. He can't be.

All of the girls in the room start giggling and whispering, trying to discreetly glance through the two large windows of the cubicle to get a glimpse of Harry. Harry, however, is behind the door, hidden from Louis's view. And no matter how much he wants to, Louis refuses to move from his very spot to look and see if he actually is changing; all he'd have to do is get up and take a few steps to the right. But he doesn't. Because then he'd be creepy. And it wouldn't end well at all.

The idea, though, of Harry being half naked -- not even just the half-nakedness, but the fact that he's taking his clothes off -- not even ten feet away from him does things to Louis that he didn't think were possible. 

"He's not changing!" a dark haired girl wearing glasses says loudly. "Lou's in there! He wouldn't be changing with her inside!"

Everyone in the room looks through the window at Lou, and coincidentally, in that instant, Lou's eyes widen in shock. She covers her mouth, and it looks to everyone like she's watching him change and is very surprised -- and pleased -- with what she sees.

Louis feels a burning jealousy sear through his body. This cannot be happening. 

Everyone's laughing now, at Lou's shocked facial expression. The laughter is so loud that Lou looks through the window at everyone watching, and pulls a confused face. She's speaking, but no one can hear what she's saying through the glass; it looks like she said something along the lines of "What are you laughing at?"

Louis's in the middle of a fantasy in which Harry is walking down a catwalk while ripping the shirt off of his chest, when he's interrupted by Harry poking his head out from behind the door and looking through the window. To make matters worse, the first person he looks at is Louis. The fiery greens burn into Louis's shocked irises, and he just wants to run away and hide.

So, not only is Louis being tormented with the thought that Harry Styles is changing while making eye contact with him, but Harry also probably now thinks that Louis's watching him change (or is at least intrigued by the concept), and that is not good. 

Then, the door opens, and Louis is about to have a heart attack. Is he going to walk out of the cubicle, half naked? Because Louis can't handle that shit. He can only take so much.

But then, Louis -- and everyone else in the room -- sees that Harry is fully clothed. Harry leans out of the door. "What are you laughing at?"

"We thought Lou was watching you change! She made a funny face!" a tiny girl with a high-pitched voice squeals from somewhere behind Louis. Louis doesn't take his eyes off of Harry. He can't. 

Harry rolls his eyes. "No, she wasn't fucking watching me change. She was surprised because I told her that our English teacher postponed our project due date to Friday, jeez."

And then, shaking his head in annoyance, he slams the door shut behind him. The giggling girls' previously flushed faces go pale, and they mumble to each other as they go back to whatever they were doing before.

Louis feels a warmth spread from his core outward.

This is good. This is very good. It means that nothing's going on between Harry and Lou; he seemed pissed that the girls had jumped to that conclusion. That's a good thing, right?

Stan nudges Louis from beside him, and Louis starts, having forgotten that he was there. "So...Harry, huh?"

Louis flushes. "What about Harry?"

Stan snorts. "Don't give me that, you know what I'm talking about."

Louis shrugs, and Stan shakes his head fondly, shoving his binder and notebook into his backpack. 

Then, the door of the cubicle opens again, and Lou steps out this time with a textbook in hand, mouthing words to herself as she walks and scans the open page in front of her. Louis glances back inside the cubicle, where only Drew and Harry remain. 

He probably shouldn't have done that.

Because he can see Drew clearly, leaning against the back wall of the cubicle and facing the window. Harry's behind the door again though, so Louis can't see him at all.

Except.

A blue sweater goes flying from behind the door to the other side of the cubicle. 

And Louis swallows thickly, because Harry Styles really is changing in there now.

 

And then Drew disappears behind the door, and Harry takes his place, standing, like Drew was, with his back to the wall and facing the window. And Louis was expecting to see him shirtless, but he's still got a thin button-down on. Louis breathes a sigh of relief. He really can't handle all of these fucking emotions. Fucking Harry Styles.

But then, it gets even worse.

Because Harry looks straight into Louis's eyes, grinning wider than Louis thought was possible -- so wide that his eyes turn into adorable little crescents -- and starts unbuttoning his shirt. 

Louis decides, in that moment, that there's absolutely nothing in the world more attractive than Harry Styles grinning at him while unbuttoning his shirt. 

Louis's going to throw up. He really, truly is. And it's going to be messy and disgusting and vomit chunks are going to go spewing all over the room and Harry will be scared and run away and will never, ever grin at him while taking his shirt off ever again. 

Ever ever ever ever.

Louis looks away quickly, and jumps up out of his seat. He wants to watch, he really, really does, but he just can't; he doesn't want to look like a fucking creep. 

So instead, he goes over to the other side of the cubicle, leaving Stan behind -- who sqwaks indignantly at Louis's abrupt departure -- and calls out to the first person he sees. "Eleanor!" he says loudly as he walks, and a pretty, brown-haired girl, who was talking to two other girls, smiles at him and waves. "Louis, hi! How have you been!"

By the time Louis makes his way over to Eleanor, he's grinning ear to ear. Eleanor is most definitely a good friend of his; he feels like he never sees her anymore. 

He's about to respond when he for some reason decides to turn around towards the office, and he then sees that, instead of there being a wall on this side of the cubicle, there's another window. 

And yes, there's Harry Styles. Half naked, golden body visible, clear as day, through the window. He's running one hand through his hair, while the other is rifling through the bag on the desk, throwing articles of clothing here and there as he searches for something while Drew talks to him. He glances up and sees Louis once more, and a smirk slowly spreads across his face, and Louis spins around quickly, his face burning. "Oh, I'm good El, thanks. You?" he says quickly, back to the window. He wants to turn around so, so bad; knowing that Harry Styles is nearly completely exposed behind him makes him feel...well, feels.

"Great!" Eleanor says, oblivious to the tornado that's currently ripping apart Louis' insides. She then starts talking about something or other, and Louis pretends to listen, nodding at the right times and everything, until finally, the bell rings. He hugs her goodbye, promises to hang out with her soon -- and he means it too, he misses her so much and feels bad that he couldn't fully pay attention to their conversation -- and sprints out of the room without looking back, without giving it a second thought.

In Spanish, he keeps his eyes trained on the desk in front of him, not looking up at Harry once. He's about to burst.

Only when class ends does he allow himself a quick peek, and he regrets it immediately, because Harry looks absolutely fucking beautiful (as always). His stomach lurches violently and for a moment he really does think he's about to throw up, before he composes himself and walks past Harry, out of the room, and to his locker. 

Harry Styles will be the death of him.


	3. Chapter 3

Louis's still recovering from yesterday's "changing" incident.

Harry's such an impossible person. Really. Who changes like that in front of everyone? In a room with giant windows, through which everyone can see you taking your clothes off?

God damn you, Harry Styles.

So yeah, this may be a massive problem now. Louis's minor -- major? -- obsession, that is.

Oops. Oh well. No going back now.

When Louis walks to his desk in Spanish today, he almost doesn't notice that Harry Styles is watching him.

Almost.

His green gaze is fixed upon Louis's, and for once, Louis doesn't flinch, or blush, or quickly look away. It's almost like something has taken away his fear and his insecurities, and is allowing him to look Harry in the eye right now and smile.

And the most insane part about all of this, is that Harry smiles back.

It gets even better though; once the bell rings, Ms. Felise tells them that they have a work period for the entire hour to get started on their oral presentations that are going to be due in two weeks.

So naturally, no one does any work. Everyone just moves about the room and talks instead, or they'd be on their phones, or listening to music, etc.

Louis just gets his phone out, pulling up his music and hitting shuffle. He feels on top of the world.

"Hey Louis!" a voice calls out from across the room.

Louis removes one earbud and turns to the left, and he's met with the sight of Josh waving him over. Louis gets up and makes his way over to where Josh is sitting, arm accidentally brushing against Harry's shoulder as he passes. Harry doesn't say anything. Louis sighs.

"Guess what happened in my English class today?" Josh says excitedly when Louis sits down beside him. Louis puts his other earbud back in, turning it down so that he can hear both Josh and his music. And then Josh is off, ranting about some girl he likes and about how she doesn't pay attention to him, and Louis can't help but feel some deja vu. Because, well, that's his life. He's slightly grateful that he's not alone in this type of situation.

Louis stands up after a while, stretching. He opts for sitting on top of the desk next to Josh instead, because he feels like it.

(Okay that's a lie, he just has a better view of Harry from here when he sits on top of the desk).

Harry's talking to Drew when this girl, Cara, who's sitting near Louis and Josh, -- not at the empty seat next to Josh but one over -- calls Harry's name.

Louis' heart sinks. Cara's in their history class also, and she's absolutely gorgeous and smart. Tons of boys at school like her, and it's ridiculous because there's absolutely nothing to dislike about her.

She's friends with Harry. And something could easily happen between them, if they wanted. And Louis doesn't know what to do with himself.

His heart sinks in his chest, and his face reddens; not in happiness or nervousness this time though, rather, disappointment and shame. How could he ever think he had a chance? How dare he even hope that he had a chance? 

Because he definitely doesn't. Not next to someone like Cara.

"What are you doing for your presentation?" she asks him, smiling sweetly. He smiles back at her, and glances at Louis -- who quickly looks away -- and then walks over to the empty seat next to Josh and sits down, facing her. 

Louis is now not even five feet away from his back muscles, which are extremely prominent under the taut fabric of his sweater. 

Red alert.

Louis tries to focus on what Josh is saying, he really does. But, obviously, it doesn't work.

After Harry's and Cara's conversation is over, Louis expects for Harry to get up and go back to his original seat.

He doesn't. 

Instead, he sighs loudly, and rests his chin in his hands, reading the paper he has in front of him. 

Louis takes a deep breath. He's fine. It's okay. He's totally in control.

"And then," Josh continues excitedly, "she got so pissed, oh my god it was so funny Louis you had to be there, there were tons of people watching. Like Harry Styles, for one - where is he anyway?" 

Josh looks over to where Harry usually sits, and pouts, not realizing that Harry is, in fact, right next to him.

At the mention of his name, Harry's face had snapped up, and he's now looking over at Louis. He then clears his throat. "Yes?"

Josh jumps, startled. "Harry! I didn't know you came over here!"

Harry's smile spreads slowly across his face, the way golden light slowly but surely creeps its way across the sky at sunrise. He glances at Josh, but then directs his attention to Louis again, blinding Louis with his perfection.

Louis is most definitely gone. That's for sure. Especially when Harry's eyes twinkle, and Louis thinks it's so fucking stupid because how can a person's eyes twinkle in a classroom lit with fluorescent lights?

"Well, I'm here, aren't I?" Harry says slowly, his honey-like voice seeping into Louis's skin and leaving tingles behind.

"I was just telling Louis about what happened in room six at lunch today," Josh says, and Harry grins even wider, looking at Louis. "Louis, it was so amazing, seriously. Allen was throwing diapers at Natalie and it was insane, you should've seen it!"

Louis swallows thickly. 

"Sounds like fun," is what he manages to come up with. He wants to punch himself in the face for being so stupid and uninteresting. That doesn't even make sense. Harry probably thinks he's stupid and weird now. 

And then Josh starts talking about how he's going to Costa Rica during their upcoming break, and Harry's still listening, and commenting here and there. And Louis wants to say something, he wants to contribute to the conversation and talk to Harry so bad but he just can't come up with anything intelligent to say, and he doesn't want to say something dumb again. So instead, he decides to stay out of it completely, and just listen to his music.

"Louis, aren't you going to South Africa?"

Louis is snapped out of his thoughts, and turns to Josh dazedly. "Huh?"

Josh raises his eyebrows. "You're going on that school trip, aren't you? To South Africa during spring break?"

Louis nods. "Yeah, I am."

At this point, Louis doesn't even know if Harry's listening, he's just sitting there, staring off into space now. And Louis curses himself for not talking earlier, back when Harry was actually into the conversation.

Harry then gets up, and walks away, and Louis's just sad. Louis's gaze follows Harry across the room, and then his eyes widen when Harry sits down in Louis's seat, behind Drew.

Harry Styles's butt is in his seat. 

Does that mean that the next time he sits in his seat, he will have indirectly touched Harry's butt?

Is that even something that he should be thinking about right now? 

No. Probably not.

Definitely not. 

And Louis watches longingly from across the room as Josh rambles on, and when the class period is finally over, Harry doesn't move from Louis' seat. He just continues talking to Drew, and Louis panics.

Because his backpack is over there. So he'll have to go and ask Harry to move. 

And that's not good. 

Best get it over with.

Louis jumps up and scurries over to his desk, and before he even says anything, Harry is out of his seat, giving Louis a small smile. "Sorry," he says, and Louis shakes his head, mumbling an "It's fine, don't worry about it."

And Harry leaves with Drew and Cara and Lou, and about a minute later Louis leaves with no one but his music to keep him company, and that is that.

****

The weekend is difficult for Louis. 

It's weird, because this has never happened before, but. That's not the point.

Louis is uncomfortable, being at home and not being at school. And usually, it's just the opposite, which can be said for everyone; people generally like weekends better than weekdays, yeah?

So why is Louis so annoyed throughout the two and a half days he has to relax?

The answer's simple. Or, maybe, not so simple. 

Because Harry Styles. 

Louis wants this weird obsession shit to stop. Seriously, he'd repeatedly smash his head into a brick wall if it got him to stop being such an obsessive freak. It's ridiculous, and it's messing with Louis's ability to think and finish his homework and eat and breathe, even. So. Yeah.

He dreams about Harry constantly -- both when he's awake and asleep -- and it never ends.

On Friday night, Louis thinks that Harry's probably out with all of his attractive friends getting wasted and high and hooking up with a shit-ton of people. 

Louis, meanwhile, is sitting at home, watching The Avengers for probably the 7th time ever. 

He's pathetic. 

Sunday, Louis hangs out with some friends of his. They go eat, mess about, and do stupid things. And the others catch onto Louis's weird behavior, and question him until he finally decides to tell them about Harry. They don't know him because they don't go to his school, so they keep questioning Louis and asking him to tell them stories about Harry, to which Louis gleefully obliges. He's frightened, because talking about Harry's perfection is quickly becoming a favorite activity of his.

Louis gets nervous, for some reason, because he feels like Monday's going to be different. He doesn't necessarily know why; he just feels like this week might have been a lucky week for him. What if Harry doesn't talk to him at all throughout upcoming week? What if their interactions were a one-week thing? 

Louis would be devastated. 

So, clearly, by the time Sunday night rolls around, Louis's unnecessarily panicking and it's so fucking weird.

Louis feels like this must be some sort of disease. Harry has infected him. He needs to find a cure. Fast.

****

When Louis walks into history Monday morning, his heart is absolutely pounding and everything is so stupid that Louis wants to scream.

Harry's talking and laughing with Cara right now. And here Louis was, hoping that he and Harry might speak that morning. He shouldn't have even considered the idea. 

Louis feels like he's slowly dying inside. His organs are shriveling up and his heart is rotting in his chest, and he can taste the bile rising up in his throat, as if he's going to vomit.

It's so awful. 

Louis curses himself for being such a dipshit. God, what a fucking joke, really. 

He nearly throws his backpack down when he gets to his seat, and sits down quickly, trying to force himself to not listen to Harry and Cara's conversation. 

He fails, obviously. 

"I really like your shirt," Harry says, and ew, Louis' really going to throw up.

Cara looks down at her shirt, which accentuates her slim figure, and smiles brightly. "Thank you Harry!"

"Yeah, it's cool. It like, floats around you when you walk."

Okay, fine Harry, just go ahead and say things like that. That's fine. Might as well fucking slash Louis's heart open 5,329 times with a machete. And then, while you're at it, just give it a few rounds with a machine gun. Then, to top it all off, blow it to pieces with a grenade, why don't you. 

It'd have the same effect, after all.

Cara grins even wider. "Thanks, H."

Ugh.

H? Really? 

Louis feels very sick now. 

"So, did you finish reading your book for English?" Cara asks Harry, and Harry nods eagerly. "It was so good, I couldn't put it down this weekend! I cried at the end, it was so sad."

Louis's chest seizes up. He can't fucking say things like that.

He cried while reading a book. That's what he did this weekend. He read a book.

He's so perfect for Louis that it's not fair. 

He can practically feel the knife ripping his heart to shreds.

Stab. Stab. Stab.

Louis wonders when he became such a dark person.

"Get your notebooks out, lecture today," Stevens calls out when the bell rings. Louis slowly reaches down and pulls his notebook out of his backpack, scared that if he moves too suddenly, the bagel that he ate for breakfast will come spewing out of his mouth and that would not be pretty.

If Harry was interested at all, wouldn't he be talking to him more? Louis sits right behind him. It's not that hard to turn around and talk to someone sitting behind you. Harry does it with Lou all the time in Spanish, and he even talks to the weird kid who sits next to him in history whose name Louis doesn't know, to ask him homework questions once in a while. So why can't he talk to Louis? Is Louis not even at the level of the nameless loser? Does he not even deserve to be acknowledged? 

Louis's just a weird creep that Harry has no business interacting with because Harry can do so much better than just Louis. 

Louis's so fucking stupid for even hoping that something could happen between the two of them. He takes some time to think about this entire situation while Stevens is starting the lecture, and his heart sinks with every thought. He's such an idiot.

He and Harry run in completely different circles. Everyone loves Harry; people think he's intelligent, and attractive, and athletic, and fun to be around. He goes to parties every weekend and probably pulls dozens of people at every single one. He's charismatic and people naturally gravitate towards him.

Louis, contrastingly, is unattractive, unathletic, quiet, shy, and is overall, not a very approachable person. He hates parties too, because they make him so uncomfortable. Louis doesn't know Harry's friends well; he's sure that even if they, by some miracle, started dating or were even friends, Harry's friends would be judging him because he's not one of them. Louis's talked to a few of them, and yeah, they're nice and all and it's not like they've ever been mean to Louis, -- just the opposite, they've been extremely friendly -- but Louis's never comfortable around them. He only has few close friends and generally doesn't enjoy being around too many people. He's not the one that people want to be around, he's not the one that people talk about or compliment or praise or anything.

Harry lives for the spotlight. Louis prefers to stay hidden in his corner, and observe. 

Harry is the sun, and Louis is Pluto, the not-planet that got kicked out of the solar system.

They'd never work. Never ever. 

As Louis comes to this depressing conclusion, Harry takes off the sunglasses that were perched on top of his head, and sets them down on the desk. As he does so, Nick raises his hand, interrupting Stevens mid-sentence. Stevens sighs, and nods at Nick, who asks, "When exactly did it become customary to smile in photographs?"

Harry snickers, and Louis rolls his eyes. 

Stevens pauses, and then: "Why would you ask that right now? How is that relevant?"

"Oh, just because in all of the pictures on your Powerpoint," Nick gestures to the screen, where a portrait of Andrew Jackson is staring down at them from above a bulleted list of facts about his presidency, "none of them are smiling. So when did people start smiling?"

Stevens thinks about it. "I'm not sure really, I think at some point in -"

Louis doesn't even bother listening to the rest, he's fed up with other peoples' bullshit. "No, no, no," Louis mutters under his breath.

But. That was an extraordinarily terrible idea. 

Because at that very same moment, Cara asks Harry if she can see his sunglasses.

And it sounds like Louis is saying no to Cara and answering for Harry, rather than saying no to Nick's stupid question. 

Louis freezes, and his stomach nearly explodes. This just keeps getting worse and worse. 

Harry turns around, smiling, but in a guarded sense. His eyes aren't golden green; they're colder, more gray, and they're glinting at Louis in a challenging way, as if he thought Louis had been insulting him in some way. And it scares the living shit out of Louis. 

He then turns back around to face Cara, and gives her his sunglasses, and she tries them on. "How do I look?" she asks, and Harry doesn't answer.

Instead, he turns around again, and Louis wants to go jump in the ocean and drown.

"Sorry Louis, but were you -? I mean, what did you say?" Harry whispers, so that Stevens doesn't catch them.

"No, I just - yeah, they just kept bringing up photographs and stuff," Louis says hurriedly, pointing over towards Nick, "and, I was just kind of like, no, as in, shut up? Like, I don't know. It just seemed irrelevant."

As soon as Louis finishes, Harry's grin becomes warm and real again. The gold resurfaces from the green pools of his eyes, expelling all of the iciness from within them. Louis internally breathes a sigh of relief. 

Harry then laughs, and nods. "Yeah, I get you. It's just like, stop talking. Some people are so dumb." He grins at Louis for another second before turning back around, and continuing to take notes. 

Louis' shoulders sag. That was so fucking close. If Louis hadn't gotten the chance to explain himself...that would've been awful.

He wills his pounding heart to calm itself and for his hands to stop shaking, so that he can take notes properly. He honestly has no idea what the fuck just happened.

Fucking ridiculous. 

****

"Sorry Ms. Felise, but me and Drew have to leave early for a water polo game today," Louis hears Harry say to their Spanish teacher later that day.

"You guys have away games already? I didn't think you started those until a few weeks from now."

Harry grins sheepishly. "Well, time flies I guess, right?"

"I suppose so," Ms. Felise responds. "Who are you guys playing today?"

"It's a tournament, so we'll be playing a bunch of different schools."

"Interesting. Well, good luck boys!" 

She then proceeds to give them the homework and classwork they'll be missing, and with a final wave to her, they're gone.

Louis can finally not worry about everything he does in Spanish class. 

He already feels his muscles relaxing, the tenseness leaving his shoulders. He feels calmer.

Throughout the lesson, Louis gets kind of bored, because everything she's talking about is review and Louis's confident about the grammar Ms. Felise is having them do. His eyes wander about the room, and they land on the projects they had made for their first week of school, on the wall to Louis's right.

Ms. Felise had them write mini biographies on a notecard in Spanish, and then glue them to colorful pieces of paper -- along with pictures of themselves above the notecards -- and she then hung them up all around the room.

Louis, being bored, decides to read a few of them. He reads about a girl named Brianna who wants to be an actress, he reads about a boy named Chase who wants to be a professional football player, and then, naturally, he comes across Harry's project. Because, this always fucking happens to him, because all of a sudden Harry's everywhere in his life and it's fucking stupid, and he's always just magically drawn to Harry in every sense.

The picture is gorgeous; Harry's in a suit and tie, staring intensely at the camera, his lips perked up into a tiny smirk that's barely noticeable -- you'd have to be staring very carefully, as Louis creepily is, in order to see it -- and there are faint dimples on his cheeks. There's a pair of Ray Bans perched on top of his head, and Louis reddens because he remembers that morning's awkward sunglasses incident. 

Harry was made to model. Really. Louis's surprised that he's not in fashion magazines and TV commercials.

He goes on to read what Harry wrote, and his eyes bulge out of his sockets. 

Yo quiero ir a una academia de Air Force, porque quiero servir mi patria. 

Translation: He wants to go into the Air Force to serve his country.

The Air Force.

The fucking Air Force.

Louis thought that Harry couldn't possibly get more attractive than he already is. He was so, so incredibly wrong. 

This boy is everything. Louis's honestly surprised that he hasn't found some sort of catch yet. There has to be something Harry can't do, right? 

Right? 

Louis swallows thickly. His eyes are so wide that he feels like his eyeballs might just pop out of their sockets.

He just keeps becoming more and more attractive, and Louis feels himself being helplessly dragged and tugged, against his will, to Harry. He's a flawless, genuine, beautiful person, whose inside is just as pure and beautiful as his outside.

The Air Force, god damn it. The Air Force. 

So, at this point, Louis concludes that the most accurate depiction of his life would be a pile of dog shit. Not the little pebbles that Yorkies and Malteses poop out either; he's talking about the big, nasty-ass dog shit, the German Shepherd, Great Dane, Wolfhound type dog shit. The kind that smells so horrible that you can't bring yourself to move within a five foot radius of it, the kind that no one ever wants to pick up because it's that disgusting.

Yeah.


	4. Chapter 4

Louis is hoping and praying that Tuesday won't be a lecture day in history.

He's dragging himself up the stairs of the history building, rubbing his bleary eyes and repressing yawn after yawn. It's one of those days. 

Somehow, his prayers are answered, and Stevens says that they'll be doing a group activity instead of taking notes. Louis internally fist pumps and thanks the master of the universe, whoever that may be, for having mercy.

"I've passed out various documents about the Trail of Tears, labeled A through J. There are five of each document distributed around the room. When I say so, you will find the other four students who have received the same document as you, and you will write out a short summary, followed by a very brief analysis. Once you are finished, you will go about the room, finding one person from each letter group and you will copy what they've written down. It will be like a scavenger hunt; your goal by the end of the period is to get all document summaries, from A until J, written down on your paper. Understood?"

Louis looks down at his paper as the class mumbles a dissonant "Yes."

He's got document E. 

He peeks over at Harry's paper. Document D.

Damn it. So close. 

Stevens tells them to find their groups, and Louis finds his on the other side of the room. They're all talking about a party they went to the weekend before and the boys they hooked up with. Louis tries his best to tune them out. 

He glances across the room, and sees Niall, who's smirking at him. Louis raises his eyebrows, giving him a look, as if to say, "What do you want?" Niall gestures to his left with a quick nod of his head, where the rest of his group is sitting, and Louis's eyes jump two seats over and woah, Harry Styles is in his group.

Louis's eyes widen, and he looks back toward Niall, who's shaking with silent laughter at Louis's reaction. "Lucky," Louis mouths, crossing his arms. 

Niall doesn't respond, instead getting a wicked gleam in his eye. Louis is suddenly terrified. 

"So, Harry," Niall says loudly, grinning nastily at Louis, and yup, Louis wants to die. 

Harry turns to look at Niall questioningly. Niall continues. "You're on the water polo team, yeah?"

Harry looks confused. "Yeah, I am."

"So you obviously get a lot of girls, yeah?"

Louis wants to find a hole in the ground to cry in.

Harry shrugs, smiling widely. "I don't know, maybe," he says nonchalantly, though there's a twinkle in his eye. 

"What about boys?" 

Louis thinks his face has burned clean off by now. He resists the urge to pull his sweater up over his face and hide, like a turtle retreating into its shell.

Harry's smile doesn't falter. "Maybe boys too," he says quietly, before Stevens instructs them to get started.

Louis is dead. Very, very dead. As dead as one could possibly be. 

He tries not to smile and fails miserably. The excitement bubbles in Louis's stomach. Harry's into girls and guys?

Harry's into guys.

Christ.

Afterwards, he only half-listens to the girls' conversation about their document. He glances over at the blonde nearest him, and copies down what she wrote, word for word. Not like it matters, anyways. 

As he's finishing up his sentence, Niall walks over to him, grinning madly. "You're welcome."

"I should kill you, you know."

"No, I don't think you'd want to. You love me too much."

"Debatable."

"Is it though? Is it really?"

Louis snorts, putting his pen down before looking up at Niall. He pauses. Then, "Thanks. I guess."

Niall's grin widens. "That's what I thought."

****

Louis is copying down document B when he looks over to his left and sees that Harry's sitting alone. 

He's furiously copying something down, glancing at his phone every so often. He's most likely looking at a picture he'd snapped of someone's document summaries.

But.

There's no Nick. 

No Cara. 

No Lou.

No one. 

Is this his chance?

Should Louis....should Louis try and talk to him? Get his document summary from him?

Louis stands up and starts making his way toward him before he has time to consider it further. The more he thinks about it, the more he'll freak out.

He takes a deep breath as he gets closer, his heart pounding in his chest. Harry hasn't noticed him walking over yet.

This is it. 

"Hey Harry, what document did you have?"

Louis surprises himself with the steadiness and confidence of his voice.

Harry starts, jumping a little in his seat. He looks up at Louis quickly, eyes wide at first. They quickly soften though, as he smiles, cheeks dimpling, at Louis. "Oh, erm, document D. Did you want to see it?"

"Yeah, that...that'd be good."

Harry lightly pushes the paper into the middle of the tabletop as Louis kneels onto the ground next to the desk, placing his own paper on the faux-wooden surface and beginning to copy down Harry's work. 

"What document did you have?" Harry asks quietly as Louis's writing, and Louis responds without looking up. "E."

"I haven't got that one yet, can I see yours as well?"

"Yeah, 'course," Louis says, still not looking up. He adjusts his arm so that Harry can see the top part of his paper, where document E's summary is scrawled messily. He leans slightly away from Harry as he writes, not so much that Harry would notice and feel hurt, but.

Well.

Louis is, quite frankly, not ready for physical interaction yet. He can't even be this close to Harry without his body losing it and pumping into overdrive; there's no telling what could happen if they accidentally touched. Louis would probably cry. He's just not mentally prepared enough yet. 

Is that stupid?

Yeah, a little bit. 

So Louis's careful to have his arm at such an angle that Harry won't accidentally touch it. And Harry draws his arm in as well, giving Louis room to write. And Louis really, truly starts to panic now, because his face is less than a foot away from Harry's and holy shit he's so fucking scared to look up, because he's never been this close before. 

They're silent, the only sound being the scratching of pen against the surface of their papers. Harry's abandoned his phone; he shoved it in his pocket after Louis walked over, opting to copy from Louis' sheet instead. 

Louis feels awkward. He needs to break the silence somehow. 

He says the first thing that pops into his mind. "Did you do the Spanish homework last night?"

Louis braves a glance, and fuck, Harry's face is so much prettier close up. Not possible. He's smiling, eyes crinkled up at the corners, looking down as his paper as he writes, his naturally rosy cheeks bringing out the green in his eyes. "No, I didn't have time."

Louis just nods awkwardly, and wants to punch himself in the face for being such a dip. 

Another minute or so of silence.

"Let me know if you can't, like, read my writing or something," Harry rumbles quietly, glancing at Louis before smiling down at his paper again. 

"I can read it fine. Let me know if you can't read mine either. Everyone's been telling me that they can't read what I've written today," Louis says, and Harry laughs. "Everyone tells me that all the time."

"I seriously doubt it, your handwriting's not bad."

Harry looks up at Louis, grinning, and then goes back to writing. 

After another moment or so: "Hey, Louis, you don't mind if I copy down some of the other documents you've gotten too, do you?"

"Go for it."

"Have you gotten them all?"

"Not quite, I think I have three or so left."

"If I have them, feel free to take them."

"Yeah, okay, thanks."

Harry's still grinning. Louis wants to set himself on fire. 

Harry then shifts his arm over a bit, and their forearms brush against each other.

Blood rushes to the patch of Louis's skin that Harry touched, and yeah, Louis really wants to set himself on fire. 

Hyperventilation.

This is why Louis tried to avoid this. Not. Fucking. Ready.

They both jump, and move their arms quickly away, muttering "Sorry," quietly at the exact same time. Louis's pretty sure that the blush on his cheeks is extraordinarily visible now. 

They then proceed to duck their heads down and continue on with their writing.

Once Louis's copied down one of Harry's documents and is just starting the second, Cara walks over. "Hey Harry, do you have document F?" she asks sweetly, ignoring Louis' presence.

"Yeah."

"Can I see it?"

Louis ducks his head down further, preparing himself for Harry to ask Louis for his paper back. He'd then go sit by Cara and they'd talk and flirt and date and get married and Louis would be alone and miserable forever.

Louis bites his lip, trying not to let the wave of disappointment crash over him. He's fine. It doesn't matter. 

Sort of.

Harry turns around from where he'd been looking up at Cara and looks at Louis, and Louis continues writing, pretending to be oblivious. After a moment, he looks back up at Cara. "Erm, could you maybe get it from Lou instead? Her writing's neater than mine anyways, you probably wouldn't be able to read it at all."

Cara pauses, looking surprised. 

As for Louis.

Well.

He's not currently processing anything that's going on right now. 

"Yeah, okay. I'll go ask Lou," Cara says quietly, and walks away. Harry turns back to face forward, glancing at Louis and smiling again, and continues writing.

It means nothing, he's just being nice. He just didn't want to be mean to you, he didn't want to hurt your feelings, he feels sorry for you. It means absolutely nothing. It wasn't because he's interested, or because he even wants to be around you. He's just a nice person, it's what any nice person would do. Don't get your hopes up. 

Louis repeats this mantra over and over, not allowing him to even consider any positive reasons for why Harry had just told Cara, albeit nicely, to go away.

Breathe in. Breathe out. 

Louis finishes up the second document and wants to start the third, but Harry's still glancing over at his paper. He can't take out a new piece to write on, because it'd cover up his writing, and would prevent Harry from finishing his own work. And Louis won't have that.

So he just kind of sits there. It's really awkward, actually.

Harry glances up at him a few times, and then finally acknowledges Louis's silence. "Um, can you not read something I wrote? Do you need your paper back? Or, are you finished and want to leave? I can --I mean, if you have to go back to your seat or something, that's fine, I can just take a picture of your paper. I don't want you to feel like I'm forcing you to stay here." He sounds slightly wary, but maybe a little concerned at the same time. If that's even possible.

Louis tries not to laugh at Harry's earnest sincerity. "No, it's just, my paper's filled, and you're not done yet, so I figured I'd wait until you were done to get a new sheet."

Harry's eyes widen. "No, it's totally fine, just - yeah, just go ahead and get a new one."

"You sure?"

"Yeah, it's fine, I can just copy it later on, if you'd let me?"

"Yeah, no problem."

Louis flips open his folder and checks the back of the left pocket for paper, and sighs when he finds none. "Uh, Harry, I'm all out. Do you happen to have a piece?"

"Yeah, I'll hook you up. One sec."

Louis freezes. 

I'll hook you up.

I'll hook you up?

No. Since when was saying something like that ever allowed? Not like this is a fucking drug deal, he asked for a fucking piece of paper for fuck's sake.

What the fuck?

The burning sensation is back.

Harry's leaning over to his right, reaching under the desk next to him for his backpack on the other side. It's quite a stretch, and Louis thinks for a moment that Harry might actually fall out of his seat. "Harry, I can go around and get it, really it's fine." Louis gets up to go bring Harry's backpack over, but Harry manages to get ahold of one of the straps before Louis can even take a step. "It's fine, I got you," Harry says, pulling out a notebook, carefully tearing a piece of paper out, and handing it to Louis.

"Thanks," Louis says quietly, smiling to himself. "Welcome," Harry replies, and silence takes over again. 

Nick then says Harry's name loudly from somewhere behind them, and then says something else that Louis can't hear -- Louis thinks it's something about biology? He's not sure -- and Harry laughs, telling Nick that he didn't do some worksheet. They joke about for a bit before Harry turns back around, continuing to write. 

Lou then walks over to sit in the desk behind Harry. "Hey H, have you done the rough draft for your Spanish presentation yet?"

Harry shakes his head. "I don't even know what I"m going to present about. It has to be an infomercial, right?"

"Yeah. You haven't even decided on a product yet?"

"No, I have no idea what I'm going to do. Do you want to work on it together tonight? You can help me."

Jealousy sears through the pit of Louis' stomach.

"Yeah, for sure!"

They exchange a few more words before Harry turns back again.

A few minutes later, Cara walks over, and starts talking to Lou, and then Harry turns around to face the two of them, his back to Louis, and joins in on their conversation. The three of them are laughing and talking, Lou makes Harry tie her shoe and he pretends to be reluctant about it, though he's smiling the entire time, and Louis feels pathetic again. 

The bell rings, and Louis gets up silently, picking up his paper and muttering a quiet "Thanks" to Harry that he knows Harry doesn't hear, and then shuffles on over to his backpack, shoving everything inside and exiting the room as quickly as he possibly can without looking back.

****

"I saw that." Niall says, out of breath, as he catches up to Louis. 

Louis's walking to English as fast as his legs will carry him. He needs to get away from the history room, away from Harry and all of his irritatingly beautiful, lovable friends as quickly as possible.

"What is it that you saw?" Louis mutters, clutching his textbook tighter to his chest.

"I saw who you got all of your document summaries from."

Louis clenches his teeth and doesn't say anything.

"You okay?"

"I don't know."

"Oh. Okay."

The rest of the walk passes in silence.

****

The next day, when Louis enters the history room, Harry is wearing a snapback backwards on his head.

Louis thinks that Harry's one of the very few people who can actually pull that off.

And he pulls it off so well that it gives Louis stomach pains.

They don't speak and that is that.

****

Later that day, when Louis's making his way through the crowded locker hall to find Zayn, he passes by Harry -- still wearing that stupid fucking hat -- who is surrounded by girls. He's leaning against the wall of lockers casually, grinning at them lopsidedly as they titter and fawn over him. He seems to bask in the attention. Louis wants to punch a wall. 

He waits for Harry to look over at him, to see that he's there, maybe say hi or something. He just wants to be noticed.

Harry never looks.

Louis sighs and keeps walking.

****

The day after that is Halloween, and Louis doesn't dress up. 

He just never had time to come up with a costume idea, to be honest. The combination of school, homework, and Harry haven't given him very much time to think of a good costume. 

He gets to school earlier than usual, only to find the door to the history room locked. He waits outside with the other students in his class, examining peoples' costumes. It's amusing. 

Niall saunters over a minute after Louis gets there, nodding at him in greeting. "Where's your costume, Ni?"

"Fuck costumes," Niall mumbles, yawning. "You're one to talk."

Louis shrugs, and leans against the wall. 

They stand there in silence for a bit, and then they hear loud voices approaching from their right.

They look over, and see a small group of people round the corner, and Louis' eyes bug out of his head.

Harry Styles is wearing short shorts -- really, really short ones -- and a tight tank. He's also got knee pads and strips of white tape wrapped around his fingers. 

Nick follows close behind, dressed the exact same way. Lou, who was waiting outside the classroom a little ways away from Louis and Niall, bursts into laughter. "What the fuck are you supposed to be?"

Harry looks affronted. "Volleyball players," he mutters, and Nick does mock stretches behind him. 

Niall, meanwhile, is watching Louis's reaction, and seems to be very amused with what he sees. 

Louis doesn't notice. He's too preoccupied with taking in Harry's very defined leg muscles. 

He swallows thickly, looking up at Niall helplessly. "How? How is this happening to me?" he whispers frantically.

Niall just laughs at him.

****

In class, Stevens makes them do more group work. "Fill out this worksheet on the industrial revolution in America in groups of eight. I'll let you pick your own groups this time, as my little Halloween present to you."

Louis rolls his eyes. How very fucking generous of him. 

Naturally, the first thing Harry does is turn to catch Nick's eye, in their way of silently agreeing to be in the same group. Niall does the same thing with Louis, looking over at him and nodding. 

When Stevens releases them, Niall walks over to Louis, along with a small group of people led by a taller boy named Liam Payne. 

"Hey, can we be in your group?" Liam asks Louis and Niall, and Louis smiles and nods. He's always liked Liam, ever since they met in the third grade. He can be a bit uptight at times, but he's a good guy.

Once they manage to get a group together, they get started. Louis and Niall do absolutely nothing, naturally, and Liam decides to take the entire thing into his own hands. "You guys can all just copy it when I'm done, it's fine."

"Are you sure?" a red haired girl asks. 

"Yeah, completely," Liam says, and Louis tries not to laugh. He's pretty sure that the only reason Liam wants to do it himself is that he doesn't trust anyone else to do it well enough. Or rather, up to Liam's standards. 

Louis, meanwhile, is leaning back in his chair, subtly watching Harry from across the room. He's laughing with Nick, gesturing to his short shorts and making stupid faces. Louis can't hear what they're saying, but he doesn't care much; the sight is cute enough to make up for that.

Niall smacks him on the arm, and Louis starts. "Ow!" he yells a bit louder than he probably should've. "What the fuck?"

"You're staring," Niall mutters, and Louis rolls his eyes. "No shit Sherlock," he says quietly. "Maybe I was staring because I wanted to be staring."

Niall just looks at him for a bit. "You're really creepy."

"Shut up, I'm not."

"You are."

"No."

"Yes."

"Stop."

"No."

"Ugh, you're annoying."

"No, you are."

"No."

"Your mom's annoying."

Louis looks at Niall incredulously. For a moment, he contemplates not even responding because the comeback was that bad, but then: "I thought we were done with the 'your mom' jokes, like, back in kindergarten."

Niall quickly pokes him in the stomach as a response, and Louis squeals. "Stop!"

Niall does it again, and Louis laughs. "No, it tickles!"

Harry's turned around at this point, and he's watching Louis and Niall, Louis laughing from the poking and Niall laughing at Louis's reaction. He and Louis make eye contact, but when Louis quickly looks away, Harry's still staring. 

"He's watching," Louis mumbles to Niall.

Niall's eyes twinkle. "Let's put on a show then."

Niall reaches over and takes Louis's phone. 

"No! Give it back!"

"Noooope, I don't think so!" Niall sing-songs.

"Seriously, give it back Niall!"

Niall unlocks it, and starts tapping on things.

"No! Niall!"

Louis jumps up and wrestles the phone from Niall's grip. "You're so stupid!" he nearly yells, and then when he looks up, Harry Styles is standing right in front of him.

"Hi," Harry says, glancing from Louis to Niall then back to Louis.

"Hi," Louis says breathlessly, taken aback.

"Uh, I was just wondering Louis, did you do your Spanish homework last night?"

"The Spanish homework?"

"Yeah, the rough draft of the script for our infomercial presentation?"

Louis has to think hard to remember, because Harry's legs are distracting him (as usual). "Yeah, I did."

Niall's watching the conversation the same way one would watch two people playing catch; his head is snapping from left, to right, then left, etc.

"How long was it?"

Louis thinks, briefly, that Harry could've just asked Lou. She was sitting right by him. Harry had to get up and walk over here just to ask Louis a question, when he could've just asked the pretty girl sitting next to him.

Maybe he already asked her and she didn't do it or something?

Yeah, that's probably it. 

Again, Louis doesn't let himself consider any other options.

"Uh, I don't know, around a page and a half?"

"Double spaced?"

What strange questions.

"Yeah, double spaced."

Harry nods. "Oh okay, got it, thanks," he says, before glancing at Niall one last time, turning around and going back to his group.

Once he's out of hearing range, Louis sinks back down into his seat, letting out a huge breath. He curls up into a ball in his seat, looking up at Niall, wide-eyed.

Niall raises his eyebrows. "Really? You're freaking out because he asked you a homework question?"

Louis just blinks.

Niall scoffs. "Fucking ridiculous," he mumbles, before pulling his phone out of his pocket and tapping out a text to his girlfriend.

Louis remains in fetal position for the rest of the class period.

****

Halloween night is a depressing affair. Louis goes over to Zayn's house and they just sit around and do homework together, eating food and candy and whatever else, while everyone else is out partying.

Louis tries to put Harry, and the fact that he's most likely hooking up with girls -- or guys -- at any given moment, out of his mind. 

It doesn't work.

Halloween weekend goes the same way. Everyone's out Friday and Saturday night, costumed and face-painted, getting drunk and high and whatever else. 

Louis wasn't invited to any parties. Not that he'd go, even if he were. 

They used to invite him, though. He'd hear about these parties and people would ask him to go, and he'd refuse each time.

He thinks people have gotten the message by now. Louis Tomlinson doesn't party. 

It still kind of hurts though, no one even bothering to ask him or anything.

He thinks again, over the course of this weekend, that everything is still a never-changing, massive pile of dog shit. 

Such is life.


	5. Chapter 5

November 2013

****

It's been approximately three weeks since the first time Harry and Louis had a conversation.

It feels like it's been an eternity.

Louis is currently at his locker, shoving his psychology textbook inside while a stream of profanities echoes through his mind. 

Fuck school, fuck psychology, fuck waking up early, fuck how fucking cold it is out, fuck having history at seven in the fucking morning, fuck the pathetic nature of being infatuated with someone unattainable, fuck it all. 

"Louis!"

Louis sighs. Whoever that is sounds way too fucking perky this early in the morning.

He turns to the left and sees Liam jogging toward him. Of course.

"Hey Li," Louis says quietly, jamming his history binder into his backpack. "You're awfully cheerful this morning."

Liam shrugs, bouncing up and down on his toes and grinning widely. "It's finally Friday!"

Despite the annoying overly-optimistic attitude, Louis can't help but smile, because it's Liam. Liam's one of the very few happy-go-lucky people that Louis can mostly tolerate. "That it is, young Liam, that it is."

Movement behind Liam catches Louis's eye, and Louis glances over Liam's shoulder, only to succumb to a sensation similar to that of being punched in the gut. 

Harry. Of course.

He seems to be walking alone at first, wearing a very comfortable looking light blue hoodie. His hair is damp and his eyes are red, eyelids swollen and drooping. He's got his arms crossed over his stomach, slouching as if trying to keep warm. 

"Hurry up Nick," Harry says exasperatedly, turning on his heel and walking a few steps in the opposite direction, then pivoting again, pacing back and forth.

Then Louis notices Nick at his locker a little ways away from Harry, in a black windbreaker that looks much too big for him. He looks equally as exhausted as Harry. "I'm trying, calm down."

Harry rolls his eyes, shoves his hands in the pocket of his sweatshirt and slouches down even further. "God, fuck morning practice," he nearly shouts, lightly kicking the bottom locker nearest him. Heads turn to stare at Harry as he does so, but Harry doesn't seem to notice or care. "Come on Nick!"

Louis hurriedly turns around to face his locker again, mind blanking. What else was he supposed to get again?

All he can think about is that he has to get out of the hall before Harry and Nick do. Or even after. He just doesn't want them all to walk out at the same time because Louis's going to feel awkward and he's going to want Harry to talk to him but then Harry won't and he'll be sad and yeah.

"Louis?"

Louis jumps, dropping his backpack on the floor. He sighs exasperatedly. "Liam, don't scare me like that!"

Liam looks confused. "All I did was say your name? I'm sorry, you just seemed kind of...distracted."

"No, no, I'm not distracted, I'm just -- just a little tired is all, yeah, that's all."

Liam cocks an eyebrow but doesn't comment. 

By the time Louis gets his things together, Harry and Nick walk past the two of them and out the door of the locker hall. He breathes a sigh of relief, and slams his locker door shut, slinging his backpack over his shoulder. "Let's go."

"Are you okay?" is all that Liam says, sounding concerned. 

"Why wouldn't I be? I'm totally fine. A - okay."

Liam pauses, glancing at Louis from the corner of his eye. "If you say so."

As they get closer to the history building -- while Harry and Nick are little blue and black figures ahead of them -- they run into Niall, who's pulled the hood of his gray zip-up over his head. His hair is mussed and the blue of his eyes is muted and why is everyone so fucking tired and sad in the morning? Louis included.

And then Liam starts chattering excitedly about something or other, and Louis remembers with a fond roll of his eyes that not everyone is tired and sad in the morning. And for some reason that Louis can't understand, the thought makes him a little happier. 

****

History notes are tedious, as usual. Louis is writing down the words on the slideshow in autopilot, unable to bring himself to even try to focus. It'd be a wasted effort. 

Harry's eating a massive breakfast burrito in the seat in front of him, downing it like he's never been hungrier in his life. He's not as happy as usual today; Harry's always smiling and laughing in class, but today, he's not speaking to anyone. Just eating.

It's not like Louis could blame him, though. An early morning water polo practice in the freezing fucking cold is definitely more than enough to get anyone irritated. 

Harry finishes his food in record time, and leans back in his seat and stretches. He isn't even bothering to take notes today. Louis admires him for that. Louis couldn't not take notes, even if he tried. He'd get irrationally worked up and nervous over the fact that he might be missing something important, and would end up writing every single word down anyways.

As Stevens discusses the Seneca Falls Convention, the sun slowly starts to climb its way up the early-morning sky. Bit by bit, light starts streaming into the room through the window to Louis and Harry's right. It starts out as a small pinprick of gold on the back of Harry's sweater, and as time goes by, grows larger and larger until Harry's entire body is illuminated.

He looks about the room. Everyone is enveloped in darkness except for Harry Styles.

He fights the urge to scoff. How fucking symbolic.

Harry turns to the right and looks out the window, watching the ball of white light rise above the trees and the clouds, the green in his eyes luminous. 

The light stays that way for a while, beaming down on Harry and Harry only, like a spotlight, as everyone else is sitting in shadows of black and gray. But then, the light starts to creep onto Louis's desk too, and Louis finds a ray being cast on himself as well.

Louis basks in the warmth, turning his head towards the window so that Stevens won't see, and closing his eyes. The fuzzy feeling tingles in his fingertips and on his nose, tingles in his lips and makes him want to smile and never, ever stop. The insides of his eyelids glow orange, warm and happy and everything feels really, really lovely. And when he opens his eyes, he sees Harry facing the window with his eyes closed as well, and Louis thinks that maybe, just maybe, he and Harry were on the same wavelength just then. That for that one, miniscule moment, Harry was in awe of the light as well, that his body tingled as it absorbed the golden beams and that he felt as though he weren't in a classroom anymore; rather, that he was somewhere different. Somewhere that isn't school. Somewhere better.

And then Louis's fantasy is rudely interrupted by the shrill bell, screaming in the ears of the half-asleep students.

Niall's waiting for him by the door, and as Louis makes his way over to him, he glances back at his own desk and Harry's, the two still being the only ones immersed in light, like two small stars in an otherwise black night sky. 

And he can't help but wonder. 

****

Spanish that day is annoying and funny at the same time.

Louis gets tingly when he sees Harry again, like he had that morning. Harry catches his eye and holds his gaze as Louis walks by, but looks away quick as ever and Louis practically stumbles to his seat feeling disoriented.

"It smells over here!" Lou says shrilly as she sits down in her seat behind Harry. Harry hasn't turned around or said anything to her, and is instead, scribbling something down on a piece of paper.

"I know, it really does," a blonde boy sitting next to her says.

"Haaarryyyy!" Drew then says loudly, dragging out his name and sing-songing it so that it sounds playfully accusatory. 

Harry spins around. "Huh? What happened?"

"You're stinking up the room bro!"

Harry squints at Drew, fighting the grin threatening to break out across his face and shaking his head. "Shut up, Drew."

"Ew Harry!" Lou says loudly, playing along.

"No, stooop," Harry whines, and this prompts Drew and Lou to continue making fun of him. Louis looks down to hide his smirk. 

"Drew, will you turn on the fan over there? I can't handle the smell," Lou says, plugging her nose. 

"Oh my gosh, you guys are so immature, it's not me!" Harry says exasperatedly.

"He lies!" Drew says, and Lou laughs. Harry blushes and continues shaking his head. 

Soon after, they give it up, and the three of them start talking about whatever. "It's so fucking hot in here," Drew says, fanning himself, and Harry nods in agreement. "I'm so hot, I can't deal with it. I need water." He runs a hand through his hair and stretches his arms behind his head. 

Louis's throat closes up. He thinks he might be the one who needs water, after that. 

Then, class starts, and Louis is thankful because he doesn't think he could've taken much more of Harry stretching right in front of him.

Halfway through class, Cara gets a note and is called to room 221, for some student government emergency thing. She's the junior class president, and according to the student government advisor, this was something she needed to handle right away.

Time goes by and Cara doesn't return. Ms. Felise questions, after twenty minutes, if Cara will be coming back, and then Harry raises his hand. "I got a text from her, I think. Am I allowed to take my phone out to check it?"

"No, I don't think that'll be necessary Harry."

"But what if it's an actual emergency and she needs something?"

Harry sounds so concerned that it's almost adorable. It'd be cuter if it weren't Cara that he's so concerned about.

Ms. Felise sighs. "Go ahead."

Harry pulls out his phone and the class is silent as he reads through Cara's text. "She says she needs me to do her a favor, but I don't know what it is. I'll ask."

As soon as he finishes his sentence, the entire class -- except Louis, that is -- lets out a loud "Ooooh!"

"She needs a favor, Harry?" Drew taunts, wagging his eyebrows. "What kind of favor?"

Harry ignores the innuendos and types back a response, not even dignifying them with a response, which makes Louis feel slightly better but not really. He's mostly just sad. 

After a bit, Harry speaks up again. "She needs me to bring her all of her stuff, like her backpack and everything, because she won't be coming back to class."

"Okay, go ahead," Ms. Felise says before continuing on with her lesson.

Louis can't pay attention though. He watches Harry as he walks over to Cara's seat and packs her stuff into her backpack, looking slightly concerned for Cara for whatever reason. He walks out of the room, and Louis is annoyed.

A few minutes later, he comes back, backpackless, looking less worried now. Ms. Felise ignores his arrival, continuing to explain about the use of the subjunctive in Spanish.

Louis's still annoyed. 

****

This weekend is better for Louis than the previous two. He comes back to school on Monday feeling energized. He has a really good feeling about today.

He has to give his infomercial presentation in Spanish. He's selling play-doh, and his goal is to convince the class to buy his product. He's really excited; one - because his presentation is kick-ass, and two - because Harry won't be there to see it. He has a water polo game that day, and will have to leave at the beginning of the period. Louis won't have to deal with the pressure of speaking in front of him, and he'll do amazing and get a good grade and that will be that. 

Lunch rolls around rather quickly, and Louis's in a great mood. He's mentally rehearsing his presentation, ready to get up there and kill it. By the time he walks into Spanish, he's buzzing, pumped to get this project over with. 

Except, Harry and Drew walk in and sit down, and get their binders and papers out.

They never do that when they have a game. They usually just walk in, tell Ms. Felise they have to go, then leave.

But they're wearing their game day shirts. Why aren't they leaving yet?

Eep. Panic time.

"Don't you guys have a game?" Lou asks them both as she walks in. Harry nods. She raises her eyebrows. "Then why are you here?"

"Home game," Drew says. "Plus, it's at five, so. No rush."

Shit.

Louis's heart starts pumping faster and faster. He can't fucking do this, holy shit he can't do this. 

No no no no no. Please no.

Ms. Felise starts class, talks about the presentations a bit, and has the first person go up. They're going to be doing these presentations for four days, and they had all signed up for days the previous Thursday. Louis had wanted to go on Monday so that he could spend the rest of the week relaxing, not having to worry about it anymore. 

He really regrets that decision now.

He's wringing his hands at his desk, not paying attention to the first presentation. He feels hot. Very, very hot. He's burning up, and the room feels like it's getting smaller and closing in on him and fuck, he's not ready for this, he wasn't prepared for this. 

The next three presentations go by slowly, and Louis is in pain because he wants them to just be done so that he can get up there and embarrass himself -- the way he surely will -- and have it be finished and done. The faster he presents, the sooner everyone will forget about how awful he was.

And then, as the presenter right before him is just finishing up, Louis realizes that this is so fucking stupid -- that he's being a complete, utter idiot. Why should he let the presence of one person dictate how he feels about his presentation? He thinks it's really fucking good, and it's a tiny assignment for Spanish class, for fuck's sake, it's not like his entire grade's on the line. It doesn't matter. If Harry thinks it's awful, oh well. Louis will have known that he did everything he could to make it great. If his best isn't good enough for Harry, then Harry isn't good enough for him. 

"Alright Louis, your turn!" Ms. Felise says enthusiastically, and Louis gets up, feeling significantly less terrified, grabs his little play-doh containers and makes his way to the front of the room. 

"One second, Louis, let me just get the timer ready," Ms. Felise says, and Louis nods, setting the containers down on the small table at the front of the room. He catches a few peoples' eyes, who give him a thumbs up, and he grimace-smiles at them, making a face as if to say, "Hopefully this'll go well."

And then as he's turning around to adjust the containers on the tabletop so that the labels face the audience, he catches Harry's eye. It wasn't intentional, Louis wasn't looking for him; Harry sits in the front row, it's kind of hard to miss him. 

Harry's half-smiling at him with this different kind of look in his eye. He's watching Louis in a way that Louis doesn't know how to describe; all he knows is that it makes him feel bubbly inside. When he and Louis make eye contact, Harry's grin gets wider, and when Louis gives Harry the same grimace-smile type expression that he'd given everyone else, Harry wiggles his eyebrows, and Louis tries not to laugh. 

He feels like Harry's supporting him, with that one grin, by trying to make him laugh. He legitimately seems excited for Louis' presentation. 

"Ready?" Ms. Felise asks. Louis nods, and she gives him the thumbs up to go ahead.

And Louis is off. He's chattering in Spanish, his voice loud and confident, smiling all the while. Ms. Felise is nodding and smiling at him while he speaks, Josh is grinning with support, and Harry, well.

Harry's watching him with that same half-smile as before, his eyes glittering with some unreadable emotion. Louis doesn't know what he's thinking; all he knows is that it makes him feel really, really good. He doesn't take his eyes off of Louis once, and though that should make Louis nervous, it just makes him want to be better. And it makes him irrationally feel as though maybe, just maybe, he could be a friend of Harry's, at some point.

But then, he thinks that maybe he's reading too much into this and overthinking again. Maybe Harry's just smiling at him like that to be nice. Maybe Harry's been smiling at all of the presenters like that.

Louis doesn't let that get to him though, as he continues speaking, never faltering once, except for his slightly shaking hands, which he can't control at all -- he hopes no one really notices. He throws in a few sarcastic, dry comments here and there, and the class loves it. They can't get enough; they're laughing nearly the entire time. And every time Louis makes a joke, Harry is the first to laugh, he's the first to get that sparkle in his eye and grin wide, the white of his teeth blinding Louis as he continues. And Louis thinks that Harry doesn't see him as that quiet kid anymore -- if he ever did, which he probably had at some point. Harry maybe thinks he's funny. Harry's laughing at all of his jokes, Harry's smiling up at him like he's the funniest person that's ever existed, and that makes Louis feel very, very proud. 

And when Louis reaches the end of his presentation, he feels fucking amazing. He feels like he could fucking fly, and he's suddenly very, very glad that Harry was here to see this. Everyone claps and Ms. Felise tells him that he did a fantastic job, and he walks back to his seat with legs that are shaking with relief. 

Louis feels relaxed, happy, and confident for the rest of the class period, better than he has in a very long time.

****

The next day in history, they do a partner activity. Louis, naturally, is partners with Niall. It's kind of a partnership destined for disaster though, because neither of them like to do work, but. They always make it come together somehow.

They do some research on a famous artistic figure -- or whatever the fuck it is -- from American history during the 1800s. They take notes on him, and they get done fairly fast. Stevens then makes each pair teach at least five other pairs about their artist, making them repeatedly give a sort of one-on-one oral presentation to a bunch of different people. Louis tries to make Niall do them all, but Niall is stubborn and will only help if Louis talks too. Louis thinks the whole thing is just stupid. 

He's still on a post-presentation high. He couldn't stop smiling all afternoon and evening yesterday; he even woke up this morning with a smile on his face. 

And now, as Louis is reading out the facts they found to Liam and his partner, he glances up and catches Harry's eye, who's looking over at him and Niall from across the room. He holds Louis's gaze for quite a while, and then Louis is forced to look away to continue reading. When he looks up again, Harry's back is to him.

This small exchange feels somewhat significant to Louis, as do the numerous other small moments of eye contact that occur throughout the hour, and he can't pinpoint why.

They just do. 

****

Louis is walking into the locker hall to find Zayn during their morning break when he sees Harry talking to Cara at her locker.

He grits his teeth, taking a deep breath and fighting the envy that's clawing at his stomach.

Before Louis can make it past them, though, Cara slams her locker door shut and her and Harry start walking in Louis's direction. 

Harry then makes eye contact with Louis, and holds his gaze, like he did over and over that morning. 

Louis can't just walk by without saying anything. Harry's watching him. That'd be awkward and stupid.

From a little ways away, Louis sees Zayn at his locker, watching Louis walk toward Harry and Cara, grinning amusedly. Louis makes a mental note to smack him after this is over. 

Harry and Cara get closer. Louis takes a deep breath.

He smiles at them, and raises his hand in a wave. The second Louis acknowledges them, Harry smirks, and Louis wants to slap it off of his face. It's too fucking attractive to be a thing.

"Hi Louis," Harry says in this tone that is, to put it simply, just different. His eyes are glinting in that weird way again, and Louis's heart is vibrating. "Hi," Cara says to Louis after Harry does, smiling brightly at him. 

"Hey guys," Louis says as he passes by, and once they're behind him, he exhales loudly.

But then.

"Hey wait, Louis?" he hears Harry's voice call from behind him.

Zayn's still grinning at him. It's making Louis nervous. He feels like Zayn is just waiting for him to embarrass himself, or shit his pants or something. It's terrifying.

Louis turns around slowly, only to see that Harry has stopped in the middle of the hall, Cara waiting next to him, looking over at Louis with that same half-smile on his face. He pauses for a bit, then: "Your presentation in Spanish yesterday was really funny, by the way."

Louis's heart clenches. "Thank you," he says with a grin, and Harry's smile widens before he turns back around and continues down the hall with Cara. 

Louis spins around to face Zayn, wide-eyed and petrified, and Zayn just laughs. "Damn Louis, he thinks you're funny. Get in."

Louis lightly smacks Zayn in the arm, and then smacks him again for good measure. It's satisfying.

"Seriously though Louis," Zayn says, tugging a book out of his backpack and placing it in his locker. "That was really sweet. He stopped in the middle of the hallway to compliment you!"

Louis rolls his eyes, blushing. "He's just being nice."

Zayn just looks at him and shrugs. "I thought it was really cute. And you handled it well too, you didn't drop anything this time, so."

Louis smacks Zayn again. Zayn laughs at him.

Louis feels like he's glowing for the rest of the day.


	6. Chapter 6

"So I was at the game last night, and I was sitting in the stands with my mom, yeah? And get this - Harry's mom was sitting right in front of us," Zayn says quietly as he and Louis are walking through the locker hall.

Louis nearly squeaks in response.

"So my mom starts pointing at all these guys and pretending to check them out, which was fucking hilarious by the way, and then she pointed at Harry and -"

"Don't you dare fucking tell me that one of you said something about me liking him or I swear -"

Zayn rolls his eyes. "We didn't. What happened is more of an issue for me than you, believe it or not, because she -"

"The last thing I need is for Harry's mom to tell him that I'm creepily obsessed with him or something."

"But...you are. You are creepily obsessed."

"Fuck off."

"Anyways, she pointed at Harry and was like 'Who's that? He's cute.' And I was like 'Yeah, he really is,' and I said it way louder than I should've, without even fucking thinking about the fact that his mom was right fucking there."

Louis freezes, and then suddenly turns on Zayn. "You...you think he's cute?" he says emotionlessly.

"...Yeah, he's fucking hot, Louis. D'you think I'm stupid? Only an idiot wouldn't get that."

Louis's fuming. Mostly in a joking way though. Mostly. "Don't."

"Don't what?"

"Don't be trying to steal my man!"

Zayn pauses, and then bursts out laughing. "Me? Steal your man? You're such a dick, Louis." He's absolutely lost it, wheezing between sentences.

"It's not funny!"

"Yes it is! Don't you know me?! I'd never do that to you! Plus, it's not like he even really knows who I am. Even if his mom did somehow tell him that I think hes hot, I wouldn't have to deal with him thinking I'm creepy or anything because I don't even talk to him, I just watch from afar! It's brilliant."

"And you said this was worse for you than me because?.."

"Because...well. I don't actually know. I'm not really seeing any negativity on my part anymore."

Louis glares at him.

"Oops."

Louis flips him off before tossing his hair and walking away, leaving a laughing Zayn behind.

****

Louis's really excited when he walks into Spanish later that day because it's Harry's day to present his infomercial.

He's practically bouncing in his seat. He'd heard really good things about Harry's speaking skills from Stan, who's in his English class; apparently, Harry's a natural. He's confident and speaks intelligently, and kills it every time. Louis heard him talking to Lou that morning in history about how his product is a survival bag, for going in the wilderness and camping and all that. Louis can't wait.

The first five presentations go by in a flash. None of them are very memorable.

"Harry, let's see what you've got!" Ms. Felise calls out once the fifth presenter has sat down. Harry takes a deep breath, wipes his hands on his jeans, grabs a large black bag, and walks up to the front of the room.

Louis leans forward in his seat, trying not to grin. 

Harry takes a deep breath. His hands are shaking like mad, and his cheeks are turning dark pink. Louis's eyes widen. Why's he nervous?

"Whenever you're ready," Ms. Felise says reassuringly, her finger hovering above the "Start" button on her phone's timer.

And then Harry starts to speak.

His voice shakes, his hands shake, his legs shake. He gets redder and redder the more he talks. He doesn't glance down at the notecard in his trembling hand very often, but when he does, he bites his lip.

Then, he pauses. "Um-" he keeps saying. "Lo siento," he mutters as he tries to remember what he was going to say. Louis thinks this is the most adorable thing he's ever seen. His chin is resting in his hands, and he's pretty sure he looks just as obsessed as he feels in that moment, but he just doesn't fucking care.

Harry drops his notecard, and lets out a soft gasp, bending over to pick it up with a tomato-red face, shaking as he does so. He thinks for a bit longer, but then his eyes light up, and he continues.

He's working the room, though, despite his nervousness. His eye contact is good; he's sweeping from one side of the class to the other then back again at an extremely good speed. Many, many times, he makes direct eye contact with Louis.

At one point, Harry looks at Louis and doesn't look away for three whole sentences. Louis feels himself getting pink the entire time, but refuses to break eye contact, and just can't stop fucking smiling.

Towards the end, he holds up a piece of paper with a fake phone number on it, so that "viewers" can "call and order" his product "for only $19.99!"

But he holds it upside down, and Louis thinks he actually might explode from the sheer cuteness of this whole fucking thing.

"It's upside down!" someone whispers, and Harry's expression turns confused. He looks down at the paper, and reddens, looking down at his shoes bashfully. "Oops," he mumbles, giggling shyly and turning it right side up, almost dropping it in the process, and the class laughs -- not at him, but with him. Louis included.

His cheeks hurt from smiling.

Harry finishes right on time, and the class applauds. "Yes, I'm done!" Harry says, and the class laughs again. He makes his way over to his seat, shaking his head and telling Lou that he forgot to say one part and that he's really disappointed in himself. Lou assures him that he did fine, but he keeps saying that he's super embarrassed, and Louis wants to go over there and hug him and never let him go because he shouldn't be embarrassed, it was so cute!

Louis can't understand it. The Harry Styles was nervous. Why was he nervous? He's Harry fucking Styles! There's no reason for him to be nervous, everyone idolizes him! Even if it was bad -- it wasn't -- no one would judge him! It makes no sense.

What happened to the confident, amazing Harry Styles that Stan told him about? Stan swore that Harry was an amazing presenter who never faltered, not that he was a super bashful, nervous speaker. Not that Louis minds at all, obviously, because it was too fucking adorable to be real but still.

Maybe it's because Harry's not used to speaking in Spanish, or something.

Then Harry turns around in his seat, shaking his head and smiling shyly. He looks directly at Louis, and says, "That was so fucking terrible."

Louis' confused. Is Harry talking to him? Or Lou? Or someone else? Is he making accidental eye contact?

He answers anyways.

"No Harry, you did really well! I promise!" Louis says, maybe a bit too eagerly.

Harry just shakes his head, his face still a bit red from the three minutes he spent presenting. "No, I forgot an entire part and I blew it."

"Harry, you didn't even use your notecard, you knew what you were going to say and you spoke well! Don't worry about it."

Harry shrugs. "I don't know, I guess." He's still half-smiling, looking slightly ashamed with himself, and then turns around to face the front of the room to watch the next presenter.

Louis is frozen.

Harry wanted confirmation from him. He wanted confirmation on how he did on his fucking presentation from Louis.

Louis is burning from the inside out.

****

Harry's not in history the next day.

Sick? Sleeping in? Hurt? The possibilities are endless. Louis can't help but worry, jump to the worst-case scenario.

He's disappointed. He always looks forward to seeing Harry, even if they don't talk all the time.

He's walking to environmental science later that day when he sees Harry, leaned up against a wall and waiting next to the entrance of one of the biology classrooms, among the other kids in the class. Louis could see the teacher making her way down the hallway, keys to the room in hand.

Harry doesn't see him.

Even so, Louis brightens up a bit. He probably just slept in. Which means that he's going to be in Spanish class.

Score.

Later that day, at lunch, Louis's contact lens in his right eye is acting up, and it's watering like crazy. He scurries off to the bathroom to take off his contacts and use his glasses instead, but somehow, after taking the contacts off, the pain gets even worse.

Louis sighs. This has happened way too many times before. 

He pulls his phone out to call his mom, feeling upset and disappointed. He'll have to go to the eye doctor, which means he won't be able to come back to school for Spanish, and will have to give his homework to someone from his class to give to Ms. Felise.

Which means no Harry.

After calling his mom and telling her what's going on, she begins to panic. "I'm on my way right now, go to the nurse's office and get a pass to be excused for the rest of the day. I'll make an appointment with the doctor."

She hangs up before Louis can reassure her that he's fine, that it's probably not too bad. Louis rolls his eyes.

He pulls out his Spanish worksheet, glancing in the bathroom mirror at his reflection as he does so. His right eye is extremely pink. It looks like he has an infection, and it's gross. Ugh.

He knows that Josh eats lunch in room six every day, the newspaper kids' room. He makes his way over there, planning to leave his worksheet with him, after which he'll go off to the health office.

He's mainly preoccupied with wondering if his eye will get better before school tomorrow -- he has an English quiz, and his teacher doesn't allow people to take make-up quizzes if they miss school -- on the way, so when he walks in, he's blindsided by Harry Styles once again.

He's sitting at one of the desktop computers, a Word document open in front of him. He's typing furiously, eyebrows furrowed and the tiniest bit of tongue poking out.

Louis blushes and tears his gaze away. He scans the room quickly, looking for Josh. He needs to get out of there as soon as possible before someone sees his fucked up eye.

Josh isn't there.

He peeks into the two cubicles. Nope.

He scans the room once more. Nowhere to be found.

"Hey Lou!" someone calls. It's Stan.

"Hey," Louis says distractedly. God, what the fuck is he going to do?

"What brings you here buddy?" Stan says as he walks up, but then he freezes, and points to Louis's face. "Shit, your-"

"Shut it Stan," Louis hisses. "I don't want people to notice. I have to go to the eye doctor, and I need to leave my Spanish homework with Josh. He here?"

Stan shakes his head. "He was here earlier, but left maybe ten minutes ago or so."

"Fuck."

So, Louis has two options.

He can either just leave and get a zero on the homework.

Or, he can ask Harry to give it to Ms. Felise.

Right now, he's leaning towards the first option. He doesn't want to have to ask Harry, Harry will see his gross swollen face and be disgusted and never want to talk to him again. That wouldn't be good.

And then, he spots Cal, and heaves a sigh of relief. Cal's in his class too. Thank god. "Cal!" he calls out, walking toward him. Cal looks up and smiles at Louis. "Hey Louis!"

"Listen, I have to go to the doctor right now because of..well, because of this," he says quietly, pointing to his face, and Cal nods. He doesn't ask any questions or anything; he's just eager to help. Louis is infinitely grateful. "So can you give Ms. Felise my homework and tell her I'm not feeling well?"

"Yeah, I got you," Cal says, taking the paper from Louis and sliding it into one of his folders.

Louis breathes a sigh of relief. "Thanks man, I owe you one."

"No problem, Lou, seriously. Feel better!"

"Thanks!"

And as Louis hurries out of the room, he braves another glance at Harry. He's still typing quickly. He looks really focused. It's kind of hot.

He didn't notice Louis, or his massive mutated-looking eyeball. Louis can breathe again.

****

Louis goes to the doctor, and is told that the swelling is not an infection, just minor irritation caused by a foreign object in his eye. He's given eye drops and by dinnertime, it's completely gone.

The next day, school is uneventful. It's Friday though, so there's that.

Louis doesn't do much over the weekend. Shocker, right?

He reads, he eats, he sleeps, he thinks about Harry.

Not much else.

But Louis doesn't mind. He's used to being alone.

****

"So what did you guys do over the weekend?" Ms. Felise asks the class on Monday as she walks into the room.

She calls on a few people to answer the question in Spanish. Some went to see a movie, some played in soccer tournaments or football games, some went to concerts.

And then she calls on Harry.

"So, I basically read this book. And it was really good."

Louis's heart stops. They were both reading books over the weekend. Seriously, why are they not married yet.

"And, I also watched a lot of TV," he adds on at the end, smiling charmingly at the teacher.

"What did you watch?" she asks.

"Oh, just a few movies. The Jason Bourne series, some of Sherlock Holmes."

"And Gossip Girl," Cara mutters probably a bit louder than she meant to, and the entire class erupts in laughter.

Harry blushes.

"What did you say, Cara?" the teacher inquires, grinning wide.

"Oh, just that, Harry told me that he watched Gossip Girl over the weekend. All seasons."

Harry blushes even harder. Louis thinks he might pass out.

"You watch Gossip Girl?" Ms. Felise asks incredulously.

Harry nods sheepishly. "It's actually really interesting. Whoever came up with the plot is genius."

The class laughs again. "What?" Harry asks incredulously, directing the question to the entire class. "Can't a guy like Gossip Girl? Is it really that big of a deal?"

"Oh my god," Louis mutters to himself, shaking his head and trying not to laugh too loud.

Once the laughter has died down and Ms. Felise has changed the subject, Harry turns around and gives Cara a look. He's smiling, but his eyes are narrowed. "I hate you," he whispers across the row. She laughs. "Why?" she whispers back.

"You told everyone I watch Gossip Girl!"

"Well, it's true!"

"I wasn't going to say it though! I didn't want to talk about it!"

Cara shrugs and Harry shakes his head. He opens his mouth to say something else, but then Ms. Felise calls him out. "Harry, Cara, pay attention please."

He sticks his tongue out at her before turning around in his seat to face the front of the room.

****

In history the next day, Louis is dead tired, as per usual.

He has his notes out, studying for the quiz they always have the day after every lecture. His eyes are droopy and he just can't keep them open, let alone concentrate on what he's written.

And then Harry walks in.

He shuffles down the row, dropping his backpack heavily and sighing before he sits down. "Hey Harry," Cara says sweetly. "Hi," he says tiredly, not looking up at her.'

"Do you wanna study for the quiz together?" she asks, batting her eyelashes.

Harry shrugs. "Sure," he mumbles, standing up and leaning over her desk, reading the notes she has out. They start asking each other questions, to test each other, but Louis can't focus on what they're saying, because. Well.

Cara sits on Louis's left; not directly, but diagonally in front of him.

Harry is leaning over her desk.

So, Harry's butt is basically in Louis's face.

He tries his hardest not to blush, but he's pretty sure he fails. And then Niall walks over, about to ask Louis a question about something or other, but then just laughs instead, upon seeing Louis's contorted facial expression.

"God, you're a fucking weirdo," Niall says as he laughs.

Louis can't do anything but stare at the ground and try not to look up.

****

When Stevens finally walks in, it's been about fifteen minutes.

Fifteen minutes of having Harry Styles's ass in Louis's face does really, really bad things to him.

"No quiz today, we're just going to jump right into notes," Stevens calls out as he pulls up a slideshow on his computer. Harry groans.

"All that studying for nothing," Cara sighs next to him. Harry just nods, and then turns to face Louis, and holy shit he's going to talk to him, Louis's not prepared for this. Harry's green eyes are stunning, startling Louis with their radiance. "Now I have to get my laptop out, and charge it, and ugh."

Louis can feel his cheeks get pink. He laughs, trying not to make it sound too forced. "I'm honestly not even motivated to take notes in this class anymore."

Harry nods as he pulls out his charger. "I know! I mean, it's not like this stuff is going to be on the test anyways, he barely ever puts anything from the notes on tests."

And then he grabs his laptop and steps over his chair into the next row, by the wall, where the outlets are.

That row is basically empty, except for a girl who sits in the first seat. The rest of the row, from the seat behind her on, is vacant, because it's right next to the wall and Stevens says students find it uncomfortable to sit there because of that.

The outlet is under the desk behind the one next to Louis -- diagonally behind him to the right -- and that's where Harry puts his laptop down, fumbling with the charger and plugging it in. Louis sighs. 

The class is getting their notebooks and pens out. Some are getting iPads and laptops out, to type the notes. There's a quiet rustling throughout the room, as Stevens turns on the projector. Louis really wants to go to sleep.

"Wait," Harry mutters, seemingly to himself, after sitting down. "Hm."

Then he moves.

He places his laptop on the desk next to Louis instead, his charger easily being able to reach far enough so that Harry will be able to sit there. He goes back and grabs his backpack and everything else, and plops down in the chair, completely and totally unaware of Louis's mental freakout.

Holy fucking shit.

Harry Styles just sat next to him.

Okay, granted, it doesn't mean much. Maybe he wanted to be closer to the screen, to be able to see better -- that's why he moved up. Maybe....maybe there was some other reason. Who knows? It means nothing. Absolutely nothing.

Harry opens up his laptop and turns it on, and it makes an extremely loud noise. Everyone turns around to look at him and some laugh quietly. Harry turns to Louis and grins sheepishly. "That's embarrassing," he says quietly, and Louis giggles. Harry turns to the left so that he can lean against the wall; he's now directly facing Louis. He spreads his legs wide open -- really wide open -- stretching them out. He sits like that, legs splayed, for the rest of the class period. It causes Louis physical pain, because....well, obvious reasons.

The class period goes by slowly, painfully so. Louis's on edge the entire time. He can't glance over at Harry, can't see what he's doing. It freaks him out. He keeps thinking that Harry might change his mind and move away from Louis and go back to the other seat. It scares the shit out of him.

At one point, Louis turns around to whisper a quick question to Liam, who sits behind him, and sees Nick sitting along the wall as well, charging his laptop the way Harry is. He, however, is sitting two seats behind Harry.

Louis has no idea when he got there. He doesn't know if he was there before Harry moved at all, or if he was there before Harry switched from his first seat to the seat next to Louis.

Louis sighs. He wishes he knew. If Harry moved away from his best friend to sit next to Louis; well....that could mean....

He shakes the thought out of his mind. Nick very well may have gotten there afterwards.

Louis attempts to focus on Stevens's lecture on the abolitionist movement. He can't.

****

Ms. Felise pairs them all up later that day in Spanish, to do a worksheet. Louis is partners with Cal, who comes over to sit next to him, and they start working together.

Out of the corner of his eye, he sees Harry walk up to a girl named Taylor, and he points to a worksheet. She shakes her head, laughing, and continues writing, and Harry looks irritated.

The boy who sits on Louis's right has moved a seat back, because he's partners with the girl who sits behind Louis. The seat to Louis's right is vacant.

Harry scans the room, and upon seeing the empty seat next to Louis, quickly walks over and sits down. He rolls his eyes. "This is ridiculous," he says to Louis, and shit.

This is the second time today that Harry's come to sit next to him. The second fucking time! Louis really shouldn't be as excited about something as trivial as this, but he can't help it.

He probably only came over to sit here because Drew sits right in front of Louis, and they're friends and all. And also probably because someone has taken his original seat, because everyone's moving around to be by their partners, so. Yeah. It was basically his only choice. Not like he wanted to sit next to Louis.

Louis's torn between being happy about it, or being disappointed in himself for getting so excited about it and being so pathetic.

"I know right, I don't even understand it," Louis says in response, gesturing towards the worksheet.

Harry nods. "I'm not going to do it. I'm not even working with my partner."

Louis raises his eyebrows. "Who's your partner?"

Harry nods towards Taylor. "Taylor, but she said she wanted to work with Selena instead. It's fine though, less work for me to worry about in a way. Now I can bullshit the worksheet and not feel bad about holding anyone else back."

The conversation ends there. Josh comes over to Louis and asks him questions about the worksheet. Harry watches them talk carefully, glancing from Josh to Louis and then back again, his face devoid of emotion.

After Josh leaves, Drew turns to face Harry. "So Harry, why do you wear Sperrys all the time?"

Harry pouts and looks down at his shoes. "Erm, because I like them."

"Do you go to JCrew, like, every weekend?"

"No, I barely even go. Maybe like, twice a year at most."

"Lies! You have so many pairs of Sperrys, you have to go more than that."

"No, I swear! I bought them all in one trip!" Harry's grinning at this point, and glancing at Louis every so often as he speaks. Louis feels a jolt go through his heart every single time they make eye contact -- which is a lot.

"I don't believe you," Drew continues. "Plus you have all of your stiff collared shirts, and cashmere sweaters, and cuffed pants. You're so preppy!"

"They're not cashmere sweaters, they're cotton!"

Drew just looks at Harry incredulously, Harry looking back at him all wide-eyed and sincere. It's so fucking hilarious that Louis has to cover his mouth with his hand to physically stop himself from bursting into laughter.

"Harry, it's true, you're pretty preppy!" Cara calls from the other side of the room, and Louis resists the urge to roll his eyes. Jesus fucking christ, what the fuck is she even doing listening to their conversation? Just, get out please. Thanks.

Harry, to Louis's great pleasure, ignores her entirely, continuing to periodically glance at Louis and grin.

"But see, that's so uncomfortable," Drew whines. "Why would you wear such uncomfortable clothing? I prefer casual, you know? Stuff I can actually breathe in."

"Casual? More like mainstream," Harry says nonchalantly, and Louis almost loses it right then and there. Harry glances at Louis and wiggles his eyebrows, and Louis turns away to hide his silent chuckles.

Drew gasps. "Take that back!"

"No, seriously! Look at you. You're always wearing a sweatshirt, or those tan shorts, or jeans and a t-shirt. That's so boring!"

"I wear this stuff because it's comfortable!"

"Look around, Drew. I bet you anything that almost every guy in this room is wearing basically the same thing as you are."

Drew makes a big show of standing up and scanning the room. "Nope! No one!"

"Uh, yes! Josh, Bobby, Jordy, Chris! Look at them!"

"Nope."

"Uh, yup! See? I'm unique, I'm an individual. You're just another face in the crowd." Harry smirks, and Louis's smiling so fucking big right now that he can't see straight.

"You are not unique, you're just obnoxiously preppy!"

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

"Am not!"

Louis rolls his eyes, still grinning. Their bickering goes on for a while, and it's extraordinarily entertaining.

"Harry, you should style Drew one day!" Cara calls from across the room again, interrupting Harry and Drew's immature argument, and Louis's smile falls a bit.

But his smile returns when Harry doesn't even look up. He just looks Drew up and down, and nods. "Yeah, okay. I will. For one day. And you'll see, Drew, you'll see."

Drew scoffs. "Yeah, I'll see that your clothes are uncomfortable."

"Drew, it's about being comfortable about what you're wearing emotionally. Self-confidence, and that. You know?"

The boys look at each other for a second, and then simultaneously burst into laughter. Louis joins in. He can't help it. When Harry sees him laughing, he starts laughing even harder, making eye contact with Louis for the millionth time, smiling wider.

Then, the bell rings, and Louis's heart sinks. That had been so much fun. Despite, y'know, the fact that Louis didn't really talk, but, whatever. He didn't want it to be over.

Louis packs up his stuff, and Harry gets up and stretches, going back to his original seat and getting his things together.

Louis walks out of the room with a huge smile on his face.

It's been a good day.


	7. Chapter 7

"- and welcome to our first Comedy Sportz match of the year!" is the first thing that Louis hears as soon as he stumbles into the tiny room, five minutes late. He breathes a sigh of relief as he scans the area for a place to sit -- thank god it's just starting and he hasn't missed anything -- and then he sees Zayn saving a seat for him, bless his soul. He tiptoes around people, trying not to draw too much attention to himself, and sinks down next to Zayn, muttering a quiet "Thanks." Zayn nods and then turns his attention back to the woman speaking into the microphone at the front of the room. 

"We have a lot of really exciting things prepared for you today! Who's ready to laugh?!" 

The entire room erupts in applause, cheers, and whistles. 

"Just give us about five more minutes, and then the fun will begin! Thank you guys!" She waves and then ducks behind the curtains. Music starts to play in the background, and the room erupts into loud, happy chatter.

Louis turns to Zayn. "Do you know who's going on first?"

Zayn shrugs. "Why does it matter? Whether he's in the first group or the second, you'll see him."

"Because Niall asked me this morning if I'd go to his football game, which is starting, like, right now. If he's in the first group, then I'll be able to leave for the second half to watch the end of the match."

Zayn pulls a face. "Niall's had tons of football games so far this year. Why haven't you gone to any before? Why now?"

"Well, because...Um. I don't know. Just. Niall's been asking me to go for a while. And he seemed really excited today when I told him I might."

Zayn raises his eyebrows.

"Zayn, I couldn't just say no to him. He's one of my best friends! If I picked Harry over him, well, that'd be quite awful."

"...But, you have picked Harry over him, technically. I mean, like, you came here first, and you paid to get in and everything. What if Harry's in the second group? Are you going to, like, leave then come back and pay again? Seems like such a hassle."

"I don't know Zayn, if that happens, I'll figure it out."

The two are silent for a bit, Zayn munching on some popcorn and Louis shooting Niall a quick text. 

"So Zayn, what even is this? Like, how does Comedy Sportz work?"

Zayn straightens up from where he had been slouching in his seat and turns to face Louis, leaning forward the way he always does right before he starts one of his long-winded explanations. "So, Comedy Sportz is like a sort of tournament, in a way. Most schools around here have a Comedy Sportz team, who do impromptu games and funny skits and things like that. And they compete against each other in Comedy Sportz matches. It's hilarious, you're going to love it."

Louis rolls his eyes. "Zayn, I knew all of that. I meant, like, the actual match. How do they compete? What happens here?"

"Oh, right. Well, four people from each team go up for the first half an hour, and then they have a fifteen minute break, and then a new set of four people go up for another half hour. And there's a referee who like keeps the games running and things like that."

"Games?"

"Yeah, they like, do these weird game-skit things. It's hard to explain. You'll see."

Louis sighs, tapping his foot on the tile beneath him. "And you're sure Harry's playing today?"

"Yeah, definitely. I heard him talking about it during journalism class."

"Ugh, I didn't even know he was on the team until like, this week."

"How'd you not know? He's like, one of the best people they have. He's hilarious, Lou."

Louis sighs, lips turning down into a pout. "I bet. What can't the oh-so fucking perfect Harry Styles do?" he mutters sarcastically.

Zayn shrugs, smirking. 

Louis crosses his arms. "Remind me why I'm here again?"

Zayn blinks at him, his face blank. "Because you have an extrarodinarily creepy obsession with a really attractive guy. Which, you know, is understandable, given his face and all. And everything else."

Louis huffs, sinking down into his seat. Before he can reply, a girl -- presumably the referee, seeing as she's dressed in black and white -- walks onto the stage, blowing a whistle. 

He braces himself. Let the torture begin.

****

"So now that we're done explaining the rules, is everyone ready to meet our players today?!"

The audience cheers. 

"Fantastic! First, we have..."

The visitng team is introduced, all dressed in red, and they go sit down on the red bench. They don't go to Louis's school, so Louis doesn't pay attention. He does notice, though, that the bench opposite the red one is blue, so he's guessing that's where Harry's team is going to be.

"Now, for the home team!"

More cheers. 

Two girls and one boy run up onstage when the referee introduces them, doing little dances for the crowd and basking in the applause. Louis is beginning to lose hope that Harry's going during the first half when --

"And, last but certainly not least, we have our oh-so talented, oh-so-magnificent, oh-so-hilarious player who we like to call HARRY STYLES!"

Harry comes running ontstage, doing a little twirl and smirk, eyes twinkling in the light. He goes to sit down on the blue bench, and Zayn elbows Louis so hard that he's fairly certain he's going to find a bruise on his side later on.

The best and worst part is that Louis's in the direct line of Harry's eyesight. He can see Harry perfectly.

But, on the flipside, Harry will most certainly see him too. And Louis doesn't know how he feels about that.

He had hoped he could just blend in the crowd, hover in the back maybe, and watch the match. He didn't really want to be noticed. And he wasn't expecting the room to be so small either, the stage where the teams are sitting is barely ten feet away.

What if Harry thinks he's a stalker? Because, Harry will see him. There's no chance he won't. It's literally impossible that he somehow won't recognize Louis, because Louis's right in front of him. 

This is so fucking stupid. It shouldn't be making Louis so nervous. But he can't help it. 

And then, as if on cue, Harry looks straight at him. His face is blank and emotionless, but he's looking directly into Louis's eyes. And Louis's lucky it's dark, because his cheeks are burning and his lungs are turning in on themselves and his stomach is about to burst.

And then there's Zayn, sitting there and laughing at him. 

Damn it all to hell.

****

"Challenge! Humans are technically animals!"

The referee blows her whistle. A girl on the blue team steps forward into the square on the floor, marked with duct tape. 

Louis's leaning forward in his seat, stomach about to burst from how hard he's been laughing. This is so funny, how has he never been to a match before?

They're currently playing a game that Louis forgets the name of, where one person stands in a box center stage and starts "lecturing" about a random topic that was initially given by the audience. As this person is speaking, anyone from the opposing team can interrupt at any point at which they hear something that they believe to be incorrect or invalid, and yell "Challenge!" and then explain their reason. The referee will them judge whether or not this is an acceptable reason by blowing her whistle for yes, and shaking her head for no. If the reason is valid, the challenger gets to step up into the box, and start lecturing about his or her reason specifically, and from then someone else challenges this new lecture, and then eventually the challenges get weirder and weirder and they stray so far from the original point that it's absolutely hilarious. Louis can't handle it, he's cluctching his stomach because he's laughing so hard. 

"-so, like, since we're mammals and all-"

A boy from the red team jumps up. "Challenge! Humans are so much more attractive than most other mammals!"

There's a brief pause, and then the referee shrugs and blows her whistle. The boy fist-pumps, and steps into the box. "Humans are really freakin' attractive, okay? Like, we've got really nice skin, and we're all tall and pretty and-"

"Challenge!"

Louis sighs. He'd recognize that voice anywhere.

He looks over to the right side of the stage, where Harry's standing up, grinning. "Height has nothing to do with being attractive!"

The ref blows her whistle. Harry smirks and steps up. "In all honesty, being tall doesn't make you attractive or unattractive, like I'm literally made fun of every day for being, like, the god damn Yeti or Big Foot or whatever, and that clearly -"

"Challenge!" It's a boy from the red team. Louis glares at him for interrupting Harry, expecting him to say something stupid that's not worth anyone's time. But then, the plot twist of all plot twists happens, and- "Everyone in this room thinks you're attractive!"

Louis's heart stops, and Zayn steps on his toes.

The entire room erupts into cheers and whistles, girls shouting in agreement, and Louis wants to punch them all in the face. 

And the worst part is that Harry's fucking blushing. Modest bastard. Someone as attractive as he is shouldn't have the nerve to fucking blush, as if he doesn't know how attractive he is.

But...what if he actually doesn't know?

Fuck, that makes him even cuter, if that's even fucking possible.

The ref shakes her head, moving her arms in an "X" motion to signify that the challenge was not accepted. "That's just creepy, man," she says jokingly to the challenger, who shrugs and sits down, making the audience laugh. 

Harry turns to look at the challenger. "Thanks man, jeez, got me blushing over here." He jokingly waves air into his face with his hand like a fan. The entire room whoops again. Louis wants to kick something.

"But anyways, yeah, like, height is a stupid thing to consider when talking about -"

"Challenge!" This time it's a girl from the red team. "Pickles are stupider than height!"

The audience bursts into laughter -- even though it's quite a stupid joke, like come on Louis's heard so much better -- and the ref whistles, and Harry goes to sit down, eyes twinkling as he whispers something into one of his teammate's ears. 

Zayn leans over. "So Lou, it looks like you've got quite a bit of competition here, yeah?"

Louis doesn't even dignify that with a response.

****

"How dare you cheat on me with him!" 

The audience laughs, Louis included. He can't help it, the blue team member's facial expression is so ridiculous.

They're now doing an improv skit, based off an audience-given topic: a family vacation in Cuba. There's a twist though -- the ref can, at any moment, say "rewind" or "pause" or "fast forward," and things like that, which make it all much more entertaining.

Harry strides onto the stage, facial expression urgent. "John!"

The other boy on the team turns around. "What is it, what's the news?"

Harry looks to the right and then to the left furtively, pretending to check if anyone's listening in, then leans forward and says, in a dramatic, loud whisper: "You're pregnant!"

The audience laughs, as the other boy jumps back in mock-shock. "What?!"

The ref blows her whistle. "Rewind! Redo those last few lines like you're in a musical!"

Harry scurries backwards to where he came from, and then comes bounding back, twirling. He ends up center stage with one hand on his hip, and one leg up in the air. He then turns dramatically to face the boy. "Jooohnnnn!" he sings, and everyone loses it, laughing so hard that you could barely hear the "actors" onstage.

The boy spins around, prancing to stand next to Harry. "What is it?" he sings dramatically, "What's the news?"

Harry does a clumsy, awkward jump that was supposed to be some fancy ballet move. "You're pregnant!" he sings, and the boy gasps, and then Harry looks dramatically out onto the audience. "And now..." he pauses dramatically. "We dance!"

The entire blue team scurries onto the stage, standing behind Harry, who's throwing out random moves here and there with the others trying to keep up. Even the red team is laughing, and Harry's facial expression is so serious that Louis gets to the point where he's laughing, but no sound is coming out. He wipes the tears off of his cheeks, and turns to look at Zayn and sees that Zayn's laughing just as hard as he is. 

Shortly afterwards, the skit ends, the match is concluded, and intermission is announced. The lights turn on and music starts playing in the background again, and Louis gets up and stretches. "Well Zaynie," he says and Zayn looks up at him, still wiping tears of laughter off of his cheeks. "This was fun. We should do it again sometime."

"You know Louis, I gotta give you credit."

Louis tilts his head to the side, eyebrows raised questioningly.

"You pick some really good ones...like, wow. He's something."

Louis rolls his eyes with a scoff and lightly smacks Zayn's arm before giving Zayn a two-fingered wave and walking out of the door, sending Niall a quick text that he's on his way.

****

"Lou!" 

Louis looks up to see who was calling his name, only to see Demi waving him over from one of the benches a little ways away from the bleacher stairs, a bright smile on her face.

Louis grins and waves back, making his way over to her. He gives her a hug once he's made his way through the throng of cheering, talking students, noticing that she's painted a bright green "45" onto her cheek. "Hey Dem! How are ya?"

"Great! The boys are doing pretty well so far, we're winning by a lot!" She gestures to the scoreboard, and Louis's eyes widen. "Wow, why are we winning? Niall said that this was going to be an exciting game, not a boring one where we just win a ton."

Demi shrugs. "Yeah, he told me the visitors were going to be good too. I don't know, I guess they weren't as good as he thought."

Louis nods in agreement and the two stop talking as they watch the match. Louis spots Niall zipping down the field, a large number 45 on the back of his jersey.

He smiles to himself. Niall and Demi have been dating for ages, so long that Louis's completely lost track. They're the cutest couple though, really.

Except, whenever Louis's around them, he kinda feels like shit because they're so perfect that it's unreal, and why can't he have a perfect relationship like that?

Preferably a relationship with one Harry Styles, thanks.

That's when Demi turns to face him. "So, why're you late?"

"Oh, I went to go watch the first half of the Comedy Sportz match with Zayn."

Demi grins mischievously, wiggling her eyebrows. "Oh, Comedy Sportz, huh?"

Louis blushes, and doesn't say anything.

Demi smacks him playfully. "Oh come on, I think it's cute!"

Louis sighs. "It's not cute, it's impossible and stupid."

Demi's grin fades a bit, and she puts a reassuring hand on his arm. "Nothing's impossible babe. You just need to get out there a bit and go for it."

"Getting out there isn't really my thing."

"Well then, in that case, Harry won't really be a thing for you either."

Louis raises his eyebrows and gives her a look, to which she responds with a shrug. "It's true, Louis. If you don't go for it, how's he supposed to know you're even interested?"

"I don't know Demi, maybe I want a guy to approach me for once, to like me first. You know?"

She doesn't say anything.

"Like, it's always me making my interest in the other guy obvious first. Why can't someone else be the first one to hint at liking me? Why doesn't that happen to me? Am I not good enough? All this time, have people just been deciding to fake-reciprocate my interest just because they want an easy lay or something?"

Demi opens her mouth to respond, but Louis continues before she can get a word out.

"I just want to be certain this time. I haven't liked anyone the way I like him in a long time, you know? It's been a while for me. I just don't want to fuck this up by making the first move and having it all go to shit like it always does."

Demi presses her lips together into a tight line. "I see where you're coming from Louis, but I think you should at least flirt a little bit. That way, he'll get an idea. Like, you don't have to jump in and go for it. Just talk to him a bit, and step back, and then see if he starts trying to talk to you first after that. But you can't just do nothing at all."

Louis watches the game silently for a little while before answering. "Yeah, I guess you're right."

"Atta boy," Demi says with a smile. "Go get your man."

"He's not 'my man.' " 

"He will be."

Louis blushes. In his dreams.

****

On the following Tuesday evening, the school is putting on their annual Lip Sync competition. And Louis decides to take Demi's advice.

"Are you going tonight?" Zayn asks Louis as they're walking through the locker hall the morning of the show.

"I don't know, should I?"

"Yes, definitely. The newspaper staff is doing a dance, and they've got costumes and everything. It's going to be great."

"Why aren't you in it, Z?"

Zayn shrugs. "I'm not really a dancer, if you haven't noticed."

Louis rolls his eyes. "Trust me, I've definitely noticed. But this isn't even supposed to be, like, good dancing. It's just for fun, to goof around."

"I don't know, Lou. I'd rather just watch to be honest."

"Fair enough. So are you going to go?"

"I am, will you come? Please please please?"

Louis sighs. "Maybe. No promises."

Zayn has a shit-eating grin on his face, and suddenly Louis's feeling a little anxious.

He shrugs and brushes it off.

****

When Zayn drives over to Louis's that night, Zayn is, again, suspiciously excited. "What the fuck is wrong with you?" is the first thing Louis says when he gets in the car, eyeing Zayn's manic smile. 

"Nothing, why would there be anything wrong with me?"

Louis just gives him another look before Zayn pulls onto the street, and debates asking further questions, but then decides to just leave it. He'll find out whatever it is eventually.

****

"Why the fuck is he in every single competition though? Can't he just not? First Comedy Sportz, and now this? I don't get it."

Zayn nods and Louis thinks he's just pretending to be listening and that frustrates him. He huffs and crosses his arms as they get into the line to buy tickets. 

"So all these teams are just dancing and mouthing along to a bunch of random songs then?" Louis asks, hoping to break Zayn out of his trance. It seems to work. "Yup," he nods, "Basically."

"That's stupid. I wanna go home."

"Shut up Louis, you'll be glad you came."

"How do you know?"

"I just do."

"You know something that I don't."

"Nope."

"Yes."

"No."

Their argument is interrupted by the ticket lady's call of "Next!" at which point Zayn scurries up to the window. Louis rolls his eyes and not-so-patiently waits his turn.

By the time they get into the auditorium, where a huge crowd of people is milling about here and there and waiting for the show to start, Zayn is practically buzzing. 

"Let's sit here!" Zayn says excitedly as he quickly walks into the fourth or fifth row, and sits down right in the center of the stage. He pats the seat next to him eagerly. 

Louis walks over warily and sits down, trying to ignore how Zayn's practically bouncing up and down in his seat next to him.

And then he can't take it anymore.

He turns to face Zayn. "Why are you so excited?"

"What do you mean?"

"Zayn, you're going to start bouncing off the walls soon, look at you."

Zayn shrugs.

"Are you high?"

Zayn barks out a laugh. "No, I'm not high Louis. I'm just happy. Can't I be happy?"

Louis narrows his eyes and stops himself from arguing further. 

****

It's been about five minutes and Louis's bored. Very much so.

He's looking around the room, recognizing a few people as they walk in, waving and smiling at some others who pass by. Zayn's buzzing hasn't stopped.

He feels a vibration in his pocket. He fishes his phone out and slides past the lock screen, his phone opening to a text from Josh.

hey !!! look to your left !

Louis's lower lip juts out in confusion as he looks up over the bobbing heads of the crowd, and then finally sees Josh waving at him frantically. Louis waves back, but then sees why he's so excited.

He's wearing a white button down with a black tie hanging loosely around his neck. His bright blue shorts go down mid-thigh, and he's got Ray Bans perched on top of his head. 

And then Louis's eyes dart to Josh's left, and he sees an entire two rows of people dressed almost identically to Josh, boys and girls alike. 

He then looks back to Josh, who's waving him over. Louis grimaces as if to say he's unsure -- can he even go to the performers' side of the auditorium without them all giving him judgmental looks? Wouldn't be he out of place? -- but Josh just rolls his eyes and continues waving him over. 

What makes up Louis's mind, though, isn't Josh's frantic waving.

It's the fact that he sees Harry, wearing mint green shorts with his white button down and tie, dancing to the music that's playing in the background and talking to his friends as people continue to file in. And then Louis thinks of Demi, and about how he needs to get his ass the fuck out there if he wants to actually accomplish anything in life. 

He nudges Zayn. "I'm going to go talk to Josh for a mo, be right back."

Zayn nods and turns back to where he'd been scrolling down his Twitter feed on his phone, and continues bouncing in his seat. 

Louis hops out of his seat and walks quickly down the row, into the aisle, and then over to the left side of the auditorium. "Louis!" Josh calls out excitedly, giving him a hug. "Don't you love our outfits?" He strikes a model-esque pose and Louis laughs. "They're quite lovely. This is the newspaper crew, yeah?"

Josh nods. "And we're ready to kill it! We've been practicing all week, I am so excited oh my gosh!"

A shout from behind Louis interrupts their conversation, and Louis jumps. "LOOUUUUUUUIS!!!" 

Stan is running down the row, wearing light red shorts, and tackles Louis in a hug. Louis's so startled that he can't even speak, his only focus being on trying to stay upright. 

And then -- "LOUIS LOUIS LOUIS!!!" comes another shout, and this time, Eleanor is barreling her way towards him, wearing light grey short shorts, and she tackles both him and Stan. Then Josh decides to join in, and Louis's stuck in the middle of this massive group hug of people wearing colorful shorts and ties, and he's confused. 

At last, the four break apart, Eleanor and Stan laughing hysterically and Josh bouncing up and down on his toes with a huge grin on his face. Louis makes a show of fixing his shirt and his hair. "Jesus, guys, you almost broke me, I -"

"LOUIS I'M SO EXCITED!" Stan interrupts him, and Louis's eyes nearly pop out of his head. "What the fuck, why is everyone so fucking excited tonight? What's the big deal?"

Eleanor shrugs. "We're just pumped about this performance! We've been working on it for a while, and it's been fun and I don't know. It's just something we're excited about."

And then Louis looks over Eleanor's shoulder and sees Harry watching the four of them, ignoring the tall, red-haired boy talking to him. Louis swallows thickly and looks away, trying to focus on what Josh is saying but failing tremendously.

And then it gets worse. 

Harry, still watching, says something to the red-haired boy and then starts walking over to them, and Louis's struggling to remain calm. The red-haired boy Harry was talking to looks confused as he watches Harry walk away from him, and Louis would laugh if he weren't so stressed out at the moment.

"Hey Stan," Harry calls out as he gets closer, and Stan turns around and nods in greeting. "Harry!" He wraps an arm around Harry's shoulders and points to him. "This guy is insane. He's been talking about nothing other than this Lip Sync for the past two weeks."

The two of them laugh, as if in on an inside joke, and Louis feels left out. 

"Hey hey Stan, so like, when we get up there, I'm gonna pop it, and then you're gonna stir it up, am I right?"

"Fuck yeah you're right!"

"And we are going to absolutely slaughter it tonight."

"Yes, yes we really are."

(Louis's trying not to look too appalled, because what in the fucking hell are they even talking about?)

The two laugh again, and then Harry turns his gaze to Louis. He's still grinning like an idiot, his eyes twinkling in the light of the auditorium. He nods his head. "What's up?" he says in that cool tone that Louis used to think people only used in those cheesy high school movies. He stands corrected.

Louis smiles back shyly, and Harry's grin gets wider. "I like your guys' outfits. The colorful shorts are a nice touch."

Harry laughs, and the sound is truly music to Louis's ears. "Thanks, we look so classy don't we? My personal favorite are the Ray Bans." 

And before Louis can answer, someone is calling Harry's name, and then Josh is saying that they're starting in five minutes, and then Eleanor is freaking out because she lost her sunglasses, and Louis thinks he probably should go because he's in the way.

"Good luck guys!" he says to the group as a whole, not really caring who's listening and who's not, and he gets a few shouts of "Thanks Louis!" from various people before he walks away. 

His heart is pounding as he's walking back over to Zayn, because fuck, Harry just singled him out and talked to him and that barely ever happens and wow, he needs to calm down.

It doens't matter though. It really doesn't. It's totally and completely meaningless. And Louis really needs to control his fan-boy tendencies.

It doesn't help that Zayn's still got that stupid fucking grin on his face when Louis finally gets back to his seat. "Did you have fun?" he says teasingly, and Louis blushes. He doesn't answer.

****

"And now, let's have a round of applause for our very own newspaper staff!" 

Everyone in the audience cheers, and Louis sinks lower into his seat, gripping the arm rests. This is going to hurt.

Zayn's even more energized than ever, and he's repeatedly poking Louis's arm and saying "Get readyyyy!"

The lights dim, and the music starts playing, and Louis says goodbye to his sanity.

****

Zayn cannot stop laughing as they walk back to Louis's car.

"LOUIS YOUR FUCKING FACE MAN, YOUR FACE!"

"Shut up Zayn, god!"

"Seriously, this never fucking gets old, holy shit!"

"Stop laughing at meeee," Louis whines, wanting to stomp his feet like a toddler throwing a temper tantrum.

"I think the hip thrusts were my favorite part."

Mine too, Louis thinks to himself, but doesn't dare say anything out loud. Zayn will never let him hear the end of it.

"This was the best. It wasn't even the dancing that made my night, it was your reaction. Dear god."

"Well what the fuck was I supposed to do, Zayn? You had us sitting up front, and right in the middle! Harry's dick was practically in my face, thanks, like honestly how did you expect me to react to that?!"

This brings about another burst of laughter. "I know, you dip, I had us sit there purposely. I've been watching them rehearse in class all week, I know this dance by heart, and I knew Harry was going to be right in the center. I figured, why not give you the best view possible?"

"Why, Zayn?!"

Zayn shrugs. "For my own entertainment. And I thought you'd enjoy it. Which you definitely did, don't even pretend like you didn't."

Louis huffs, unable to argue. 

****

Louis can't exactly think straight in history the next morning. All he sees when he looks at Harry is the image of him hip-thrusting from the night before, tie hanging loose around his neck and collared shirt unbuttoned down to mid-chest, and, well.

Yeah.


	8. Chapter 8

So there may or may not be this guy.

Or, these two guys.

Neither of them are Harry.

And...it's weird. You know?

Sort of?

Sigh.

Okay okay, let's back up for a quick second here. 

Louis really likes Harry. A lot. But, in all honesty, he's not sure what Harry thinks of him. So he's been thinking, would it really be that bad if he tried to get with another guy? Not necessarily a relationship, but...you know. Just, someone to hook up with, to get his mind off of Harry for a bit. 

But even thinking about that makes Louis feel all nervous. It's just strange, especially if you don't know the person. Louis prefers more solid connections. More of a commitment. 

But then, that scares him too. Commitment. And that's an issue. He's terrified of marriage, for reasons he can't fully understand. He can't see himself settling down with a nice guy in the future, maybe having a couple of kids. It just doesn't work for him. He can't see it. All he sees is him being single, being alone for the rest of his life.

And that scares him as well, is the worst fear of his life, actually. Being alone. Not, like, being alone temporarily. More like a long-time alone-ness.

He hates it. 

Yeah, he's had a couple of boyfriends before, but neither relationship was serious. If anything, they were more about physical things than emotional things. 

So there's another thing: he has no idea what he'd even do if he were, by some miracle, in a relationship with Harry. He'd probably fuck everything up, as usual.

But see, he wants that, wants it so bad. He wants a cute relationship where the guy really cares about Louis for once. One where he'll go out of his way to show Louis that he cares, that he reciprocates Louis's feelings. One where they'd be equals. He's never had anything like that.

That's laughable though. He's got his sights set on Harry Styles, yet he wants a balanced, equal relationship? It's Harry Styles. Of course it wouldn't be equal. It'd all be the same; Louis would care more than Harry would and then everything would go to shit. 

Louis thinks about all of these things quite often, because of the clusterfuck that is his brain. He's constantly worried, constantly afraid of all of it. And this is why he's been thinking about finding another guy, maybe, for something more casual.

But that brings us all back full circle to the hook up scariness thing. And Louis had started to think that this was it, this never-ending loop of doubts was all that he'd ever have. 

But then Chad came along. 

Now, again, Louis really likes Harry. And he can't seem to find some sense and give up on that whole "Harry fantasy" of his yet, of the possibility of things maybe working out between the two of them somehow. Louis does not like Chad in that way. But Chad is intriguing.

Chad is in his environmental science class. He sits right behind Louis, and is someone that Louis' gotten to know and love -- platonically -- over the course of the year so far. Chad had a boyfriend, a boy that he'd dated for almost a year -- that is, until he broke up with Chad mid-November, with an excuse about how Chad is too possessive or something.

Now, Louis's not stupid. He's not going to go and start wanting a relationship with Chad right after his breakup. Louis Tomlinson is nobody's rebound.

But again, he's not stupid. And he's noticed Chad's sly comments here and there about Louis's "really nice outfits" on the days that he wears jeans that accentuate his ass, or the way his gaze lingers on Louis's lips when they speak. He's noticed the way Chad will blush whenever Louis accidentally brushes against him, and the way he's always the first to claim Louis as his partner for in-class activities, with a sneaky smile, a different sort of look in his eye, and a wink. And he hasn't been oblivious to Chad's comments on wanting to hook up with someone in the near future, either.

So, there's interest. To a certain extent, at least. And while Louis Tomlinson may be nobody's rebound boyfriend, he sure as hell wouldn't mind being Chad's rebound hook-up for a night.

Is that wrong?

Whatever. Louis can't be judged for having needs. He's just a boy, after all.

And Chad's a decent person too. Louis knows him fairly well, so that takes away the grossness of hooking up with a stranger or whatever. He's very sweet and gentle and caring, never saying anything bad about anyone. He's very intelligent and he's got really nice eyes too. 

But then there's the other guy who's niggling at the back of Louis's mind, Tom. 

Tom is innocent and pure, and hasn't yet been corrupted by the ways of the world, which Louis really likes about him. Louis's known him since freshman year, and they've always been friends, but there's something different between them this year that Louis can't quite put his finger on.

There's been a lot more hugging, and closeness. There's been a lot more of Tom putting his arm around Louis' waist, or of tickling him, more of Tom looking at him with bright eyes and shiny smiles. Tom often calls Louis his "favorite," and yeah, that sort of does funny things to Louis' stomach. There've been more snapchats and heart emojis and Louis doesn't quite know what to make of it, really. There's an okay chance that Louis would want to hook up with him though. Like Chad, Louis knows him -- maybe actually a bit better than Chad. It's not like Louis would go out with the sole purpose of hooking up with him, but if it just happened, Louis wouldn't say no. Tom's absolutely adorable and fit and nearly perfect, Louis would say.

But he's no Harry.

Of course, Louis's not so arrogant as to assume that Tom likes him, in a more-than-friends way. He's not crazy.

But he can't exactly deny that there's something little there. Because there is, just barely. 

Louis doesn't think he wants it to become more than just barely something, though.

There are a few problems with this. One: Zayn's sort of been commenting on how cute Tom is for the past few weeks, and though he claims to not be interested in him, Louis doesn't want to even risk having some sort of falling out with his best friend. 

And two: Tom is one of Harry's very best friends. 

And, well, that wouldn't end well.

So as of now, Louis's decided to wait and see how things play out. Chad is definitely looking like more of an option than Tom is, for obvious reasons, and he's been considering ruling Tom out completely. But even Chad is barely a thing.

It's just, Louis likes the way Chad and Tom make him feel. He feels desirable when he's around them, something he hasn't felt since his relationship with George, which Louis refuses to even slightly talk about, because holy shit that ended up a fucking mess.

Regardless of everything that's happened, though, one fact remains the same: Louis is still single, lonely, and Harry-less.

And he has no idea what he's going to do to change that.

****

"Hola clase," Ms. Felise sing-songs as the bell rings. "Hola," the class murmers dissonantly in response, and Ms. Felise introduces their lesson for the day.

Louis doesn't really listen though. His eyes are on Harry. Shocker.

But then, almost the entire class is standing up and moving around, and Louis jumps in his seat. "What's going on?" he hisses to Cal, and Cal laughs. "We're doing a partner activity again."

Louis scoffs. "Oh. Those."

Partner activities never really end up being partner activities. They end up being more of the "just talk to your friends and put off your work until the very last minute" sort of activities, because Ms. Felise doesn't really make sure they're working together. Louis personally doesn't think she even really cares, as long as they get the work done.

Louis doesn't even bother getting up and finding out who his assigned partner is. When he receives his worksheet, he just sits there and kind of stares off into space.

That is, until someone plops into the seat next to him. 

"Hi," they say brightly, and god fucking damn it all, of course of course of course. 

Louis attempts to compose his features into something that (he hopes) looks like a smile before he turns to face him. "Hi," he says to Harry, a bit breathlessly. "Are we -- I mean, um, a-are you -- are you my partner?" Louis manages to stutter out, wanting to kick himself the entire time.

Harry laughs. "No, I'm not."

"O-oh," Louis says quietly, and stares down at his blank worksheet for a bit. And then what Harry said catches up to him, and he furrows his eyebrows. "Wait, then, why are you here?"

Harry shrugs. "I like it back here."

Louis swallows thickly and tries to not look too excited. "Oh," he says, trying not to make his nonchalant tone sound too forced. "Okay then."

They sit in silence for a bit, Louis writing his name on his paper and then just staring at it some more, willing his cheeks to cool down. 

Then there's a clattering from Harry's desk as Harry drops his pencil, and Louis jumps. "Fuck this shit," Harry says, pushing his paper away from him. "Do you get this stuff Louis?"

Louis briefly skims the sheet of paper. He shrugs. "Sort of, I guess."

"Can you help me?"

Louis raises his eyebrows at Harry. "By 'help,' do you mean you want me to just figure out all of the answers for you to copy?"

Harry smirks a little and shrugs, a twinkle in his eye. "Maybe?"

Louis laughs. "Very funny."

"So...yeah?"

"Nah, I don't think so. I mean, I would, but I can't really find the will to focus enough anyways, so. Yeah."

Harry snorts. "I get what you mean. I'm so tired of school."

Louis nods in agreement, but before he can even say anything, Cara appears out of nowhere and sits in the seat behind Harry. "Hi H," she says brightly, and Louis resists the urge to gag. He does roll his eyes though -- thankfully neither of them see -- and turns around, facing his paper again. Maybe he will end up doing the worksheet. 

"Hey Cara," Harry says sweetly, oblivious to Louis's disgust. He turns to face Louis again, and Louis notices out of the corner of his eye that Harry seems a bit surprised that Louis has turned away from him. 

They talk for a bit, and then Lou calls Cara over to ask her something, and she walks away.

"So, I see you've decided to actually get some work done?" Harry directs the question at Louis, a smile playing across his lips.

Louis fights back a grin. "Maybe I have, maybe I haven't." He pretends to try and hide his answers, and Harry's smile widens. "You know, I really like this seat," Harry says quietly, looking towards the front of the room somewhere. "I wish I sat back here. Seems so much more chill than it is to sit up front. You guys can talk and stuff more."

Louis's cheeks hurt from trying not to smile. "Yeah, it's pretty nice back here."

But then, the bell rings, and Louis's heart sinks a little. He had really, really liked where this conversation was going. 

Harry just gets up and goes back to his original seat without even saying bye. Louis tries not to let the hurt show on his face.

****

"Can you believe her?!" Josh is saying, annoyed, as he and Louis walk to their lockers from Spanish class.

Louis nods, playing along. "Yeah, she's something."

"I mean seriously, she's all up on his dick all the time. When is she going to get a clue?"

Josh likes to complain about Cara and Harry -- more specifically, Cara's obsession with Harry. It's really fun though, because Josh has absolutely no clue that Louis has feelings for Harry. Louis's quite amused by it. It's overall a win-win situation.

"She's literally so desperate," Josh continues. "But, like, he barely even talked to her today! I mean, I saw, he was talking to you way more than he was talking to her."

Louis's heart stops for a second, and he tries to keep his face blank and emotionless. He snorts, but offers up no other comment. 

"So, like, when is she going to understand that he's not interested in her?"

"I don't know," Louis says as they reach Louis's locker, and Josh says a quick goodbye and that is that.

****

December 2013

****

"Hey."

Chad's fingers ghost lightly over Louis's waist as Louis walks by his desk -- closely followed by Josh -- and when Louis looks down at him, he's got a warm look in his eye. "You look nice today. As usual."

"Hi, thank you," Louis responds with a smile before turning back to continue walking up to his seat. He drops his backpack and sighs, running a hand through his hair before sitting down. Josh is making eyes between him and Chad as he sits down in his seat next to Louis, and Louis gives him a 'shut up right now before I smack you' look. Josh snickers quietly. 

"So Louis," Chad says, and Louis turns around in his chair to face him. "How's your day been so far?" He's got this half-smile on his face, and Louis can't help but grin back. "It's been alright. What about you?"

"Better now. I like talking to you."

Louis snorts. "How sweet of you to say," he says sarcastically, and Chad laughs too, rolling his eyes with an, "I meant it, you dork."

"Whatever."

Mr. Owens's voice is loud when the bell rings, silencing the class immediately. "We'll be doing a lab today, so let's head back into the lab room."

The entire class gets up and heads to the double doors in the back of the room that open into the lab area, Chad walking close to Louis the entire time so that their arms are constantly touching. Josh rolls his eyes at them.

Once they get to their lab table, Owens explains what's going on, and Josh takes over, setting it up and assigning tasks to each of the people in their four-person group. "Okay, so Dylan, you and I will test for nitrogen and oxygen. Louis and Chad, you two can do iron and carbon dioxide."

Chad smirks at Louis and tickles his side before sauntering up to the front of the room to get the supplies. Josh uses the opportunity to laugh at Louis. "Louis, he's so going after you."

Louis laughs. "Yeah right."

"I know you think I'm joking, but I'm not. Chad wants you, Louis."

Louis can't respond, though, because that's when Chad gets back to the table and sets all of their experiment materials down. "So what should we do first, Louis?" Chad asks him with a sparkle in his eye.

Josh gives Louis a knowing look from across the table. Louis ignores it.

****

Louis, Tom, Danielle, and Allison are aimlessly wandering around campus during fourth period.

They probably should be in class, but it's not like it really matters anyways. Their fourth period is debate class, and they're not doing anything. Everyone's just talking is all, so it's not like they'll miss anything important. 

Danielle's got her arm wrapped around Louis's shoulders. "I love you Louuuuu," she sing-songs, and Louis laughs. "I love you too Dani." They skip down the hallway, and Tom and Allison laugh. 

"Louis's my boyfriend guys," Danielle says to the group, and Louis puts on a fake-serious face. "It's true, we're dating," he says, and they both nod.

"Uh, excuse me? Taking my place as his boyfriend, Danielle?" Tom says in a joking tone, and Louis's stomach feels funny.

"Oh shit, wait, are you two dating? I didn't know that!" she says excitedly, her eyes shining as she looks between them. Tom snakes an arm around Louis's waist, fingers resting gently on his hipbone and tingling his skin there. "Yeah, we're dating," he says, winking, and Louis lets out a forced laugh. "We're not," he says to Danielle, and she deflates, pouting. "Damn it!" she exclaims. "I was so excited for a second!"

Tom and Louis laugh, but Tom doesn't remove his arm from around Louis's waist. "So, boyfriend," Tom says to Louis, "Let's go on a romantic walk, shall we?"

Tom tugs Louis down the hallway, leaving Danielle and Allison behind as they turn a corner, go up some stairs, and end up in an empty corridor. Tom's arm is burning into Louis's waist, and Louis feels like he might just die. 

"You look really good today," Tom says to Louis with a shy smile. Louis laughs. "Thanks, I guess."

"No really," Tom says, his big brown puppy eyes burning into Louis's. "You look great. I really like your sweater, it makes you look cuddly."

Louis just laughs again, feeling awkward and not knowing what to say because yes, Tom might be sweet and amazing and perfect (as Zayn might say) but all he can think about is Harry.

Is Harry even worth it though? Harry doesn't really pay attention to him much at all. But here's Tom, looking down at him with those big caring doe eyes of his and making Louis feel all fuzzy.

"Cuddly?" Louis finally says, looking down at his sweater. It's just black and grey and boring, really. 

"Yes, cuddly. See?" Tom pulls him into a tight hug, in which his hands are dangerously sliding down his back. They stop at his lower back though, just above his bum, and Louis relaxes a bit in relief. If they'd gone any further, he would've had to slap Tom. And he doesn't want to do that.

They stand there for a while, and Louis can't stop thinking about Harry and he's feeling hot, very very hot, and he can't breathe. He pulls away gently, and Tom backs away reluctantly, shoving his hands in his pockets. "We should probably be getting back now," Louis says quietly, forcing another smile at Tom again, and Tom smiles back -- but his is genuine. And suddenly, Louis feels sort of bad. "Yeah," Tom says quietly, "Let's go."

****

Walking back into the debate classroom, Louis's met with an accusatory glare from Niall. Louis gives Niall a questioning look in response, but Niall just beckons him over.

Louis leaves Tom to scurry over to Niall. "What's up, Ni?"

Niall pauses, and then tilts his head to gesture to Tom. "So you've moved on to him now?" he asks in as gruff of a tone as he can manage, and Louis rolls his eyes. Always trying to be tough, Niall is.

"No, I haven't," Louis says quietly. "I like Harry, you know that."

Niall just grunts, and continues watching Tom warily. "Because it sure seems like he might like you."

Louis grimaces. "Well, I really hope not. I like Tom. As a friend. I don't want it to be weird between us."

Niall looks at Louis now. "So you're not going to try and get with him?"

Louis shrugs. "I don't think so. I mean, he's cute and all, but. There's Harry, and they're friends and that just wouldn't be fair to Tom, so, no."

"Not even to hook up with him? People have been talking, saying that they think you two will this weekend..."

God, how things spread. Louis hadn't even told anyone that he'd been considering hooking up with Tom at one point. How do these things even happen? "Niall, what parties am I even going to go to, to get that opportunity? You know as well as I do that I'm going to end up sitting at home eating ice cream out of the carton this entire weekend."

Niall pauses a bit longer, but then relaxes. "Okay," he says in a happier tone, and then immediately turns back to Demi, who's talking to a group of her friends about something or other, as if their conversation never happened.

Louis smiles to himself as he makes his way over to his seat. Such a fucking weirdo, that one.

He spends the rest of the class period alone, listening to music and scrawling out messy poems about beautiful eyes.


	9. Chapter 9

Tonight, Louis has decided to attempt the impossible.

He just found Harry Styles on Instagram. And he's currently opened to Harry's profile -- which is private, so Louis can't see any of his photos -- and is debating on whether or not he should click the follow button. 

Should he do it? Would he come off as creepy? What if Harry doesn't follow him back? 

He sighs. Zayn would know what to do. He thinks he should talk to Zayn. 

So he does.

"Zayn!" he says excitedly when Zayn picks up the phone. "I found Harry on Instagram!"

He can practically hear Zayn rolling his eyes. "That's great, Lou."

"Yeah, I know right?"

"Mhm."

The line is silent for a bit, Louis nearly bursting with the urge to ask Zayn if he should follow him. But Zayn beats him to the punch. "You gonna follow him?"

"I don't know, should I?"

"I dunno. Up to you."

"Would it be a good idea though? Or like, is it stupid?"

"S'not stupid."

"You sure?"

"Yeah, 'course. You obviously want to follow him, so do it."

"What if he doesn't follow me back?"

"He will."

"But what if he doesn't?"

"Then you deal with it and move on."

"Easier said than done, Z."

"Christ, it's just Instagram. It's not that big of a deal. This is so stupid, I can't believe we're actually having this conversation."

"I'm so scared, Zayn," Louis nearly whispers, not acknowledging Zayn's comment.

Zayn doesn't say anything. Louis sighs.

"Fine. I'll do it. But if it goes badly, I'm blaming you."

Zayn snorts. "Sure, okay. Whatever."

"Okay. Bye."

The line goes dead. 

Louis takes a deep breath and taps on the Instagram icon. It's still open to Harry's profile. 

He bites his lip and quickly taps the follow button. It turns from blue to gray, and now says "Requested," and Louis might die. 

What if Harry doesn't even accept his request?

Dear god, he needs water. 

He leaves his phone on his bed and clambers downstairs to the kitchen. He has a quick conversation with his mom as he fills a glass with water, quickly downs it, and then scurries back to his room. 

He picks up the phone, fingers twitching, wanting to check and see if Harry accepted, even though he only just requested to follow him less than five minutes ago. 

He checks anyway, feeling one hundred percent certain that nothing's going to have happened yet.

He taps on the app, and it opens up to Louis's profile this time. And Louis gasps, because the number of people he's following went up one. 

He holds his breath as he taps his newsfeed button, heart absolutely pounding against his ribs as the page loads. 

And then when it does load, he nearly falls over because there, at the top of the screen, it reads:

harrystyles wants to follow you

Holy shit, that was so fucking fast, dear god. He can't stop smiling, he's just so fucking happy and relieved and it really doesn't matter because it's just Instagram, like Zayn said, but fuck, he's so happy. Sue him.

Louis's finger is shaking as he taps the green checkmark to accept Harry's follow request, and the page transforms to instead show:

harrystyles started following you

Louis squeals and screenshots the page, sending it to Zayn, who responds immediately:

told you so hah :) 

****

A few days later, Louis Instagrams a picture of him and his sisters at home, all cuddled up on the couch. He's got to admit, it's really fucking cute. 

And Louis absolutely does not squeal like a little girl when Harry is the thirty-fifth person to like it. 

He doesn't.

****

Louis's good mood is shattered on Wednesday. 

He's daydreaming about the coming of his daily after-school nap when Harry's voice catches his attention. "Hey Cara, can I have one?"

Louis's eyes snap over to Cara's seat, and he sees that she has one of those packages of Nutella, with the sticks you dip into the chocolate and eat. 

"Sorry Harry, this one's mine. And I didn't bring any extras," she says, smiling at him and Louis wants to throw up. He rests his face in one hand, sighing.

But then.

Harry grins back at her so that his dimple appears on his cheek. "Oh, okay, I see how it is. You just don't bring one for your boyfriend, Cara? Wow."

Louis's mouth goes dry and his heart feels like it's crushing him and he thinks he may be drowning and he's mind-rambling and his thoughts just won't shut up which always happens in these situations and then his arm goes limp, and it falls onto the tabletop, smacking the desk with a very loud noise. 

He should be embarrassed about it, but he doesn't even look around to see if anyone's staring. All he can look at is Harry's smiling face. And he's gaping, like a fucking fish or some shit, but he doesn't fucking care.

Boyfriend. Harry said boyfriend. As in, him. He. Harry. Being the boyfriend. And not Louis's boyfriend. Cara's boyfriend. 

He grips the edge of the desk hard, trying to keep his breathing even. He can't tear his eyes away from Harry's still-smiling face. He's continuing to talk to Cara now, but Louis can't hear what he's saying. He can't hear anything that anyone's saying. All sound is being drowned out by Louis's pounding heart.

He swallows thickly. Okay. No jumping to conclusions, no being dramatic. Maybe it was a joke?

Oh, who is he fucking kidding? Of course it wasn't a joke. Harry just outright called himself her boyfriend. He said it. There's no question about it. 

Tears prickle at his eyes, and his vision gets a little blurry. He swallows again, telling himself to get a grip. No way in hell is he going to start crying in the middle of class. Especially not in front of Harry. 

He should've listened to himself, his doubts. He knew something like this would happen, he knew this weird crush of his was destined for failure. It always happens to him, Louis's used to it. He shouldn't be as disappointed as he is. He should've been prepared for this. 

But he wasn't, is the thing. He had allowed for himself to hope, and now everything is coming crashing down. This is what happens when Louis gets his hopes up, every time. And he should've fucking known better. 

Without even realizing it, his breaths had started getting shallower and faster and he has to physically will himself to slow down. He tears his gaze away from Harry to stare at the desk in front of him instead, and mentally counts as he breathes in and out, completely blocking out everything that's happening in the classroom. 

When he's almost one hundred percent sure he's gotten himself together, he looks up, forcing himself to stare at the whiteboard at the front of the room. He's composed his face into a blank stare, the only thing giving his distress away being the fact that he hasn't stopped gripping the edges of his desk, knuckles white. He still can't hear anything over the torrent of thoughts racing through his mind. 

When did this happen? How could this happen? She's ridiculous! Why is this happening?! Josh said there was no way this could happen!

Holy fuck, this is happening. He should've known. He so should've known and wow, he literally can't function. This is all his own fault, completely. 

He should text Josh. He should text him right now and ask him, he's only sitting across the room, after all. Plus, he's always on his phone during class.

Louis watches the teacher and pulls out his phone when he's sure she isn't looking, tapping out a quick message to Josh. 

are harry and cara dating now?

He gets a response immediately. wait, what? are they? 

Louis types out a summary of the conversation between Harry and Cara that he overheard, and impatiently awaits a response. 

After an agonizing minute or so, his phone lights up in his lap.

idk, i'll ask after school today. we have newspaper production things to do, so i'll be w him for a couple hrs

Louis types back a quick "oh okay, let me know when you find out" and then shoves his phone back in his pocket, tapping his foot silently on the carpet. Tears are still threatening to well up, his eyes burning, and he breathes deeply through his nose to stop them. Louis can't help but view both Harry and Cara in a different light now. She's so lucky, lucky beyond belief. He just wants it to be him, in her place. So bad.

He can't handle this. He has to know now, he can't wait.

But he doesn't have any other choice. 

****

He gets home with a heavy heart, weighing down in his chest. The first thing he does is go to the fridge, pulling out a tub of vanilla yogurt and dumping a bag of m&ms into it. He takes it over to the couch, curls up into a ball, and sets his phone on the coffee table in front of him. 

He eats. And he waits. 

****

When the text finally comes, he's eaten the entire tub of yogurt and is feeling significantly calmer. 

He almost doesn't want to check the message that's flashed upon the screen, feeling like a final confirmation of Harry's relationship status could bring on another onslaught of horrible emotions. Louis's only just actually gotten himself together. It took two hours. He can't afford to waste another two. 

He stares at the phone for a bit, willing for the message to just disappear. Maybe he doesn't have to know. He can go to school and still talk to Harry and stuff, because, like, Harry being in a relationship can't keep him from speaking to Louis. 

He shouldn't even care, really. Not like Harry would care, if their roles were reversed. This is such bullshit. Louis's pathetic. 

He leans forward and snatches the phone off the table, typing in the passcode with shaky fingers. The message is sitting there, waiting in the messages folder. He can see the "1" in the bright red circle, taunting him. It's just one tap away.

He sets the phone down. He's not ready for this. He's already begun to hyperventilate again. 

Louis gets up and starts pacing. Okay. It can't be that bad. The confirmation won't make him feel any different. It doesn't change the situation that Louis's forced himself to accept, won't make it worse.

(That's a lie and he knows it.) 

He groans in frustration, hands pulling at his hair. He's fine. Everything's fine. Nothing bad will happen. 

He sits back down slowly, picking up the phone once again and quickly punching in the passcode. He taps on the "Messages" icon without even giving himself more time to think about it. 

Josh's text opens immediately, black letters staring at him from the illuminated screen. 

they're not dating

Louis's frozen, unable to process the message. 

What the fuck?

His eyebrows pull together as he thinks back to their conversation in class. He was pretty sure he heard everything Harry said correctly. How could Louis be wrong?

seriously? how'd you know?

asked him

and you're sure?

200%

how'd you ask, what'd he say?

i'll tell you tmrw, don't wanna type it all

Louis leans back against the cushions of his couch, letting out a massive breath of relief. He rubs at his eyes, and then laughs to himself, for being so ridiculous and stupid. He always does this, always jumps to conclusions. Maybe he overreacted just a tiny bit.

Still, though, this doesn't make any sense. How could they not be dating, if Harry so blatantly said what he did? Louis doesn't get it. 

Louis pushes himself off of the couch to head off to his room, to take a half hour nap before starting his homework. Whatever the reason for Harry's comment, he'll know eventually. Right now, he's too relieved to care. 

****

"Okay, so this is what happened."

Louis and Josh are walking out of their environmental science classroom for their morning break, and Louis has been bouncing in his seat the entire class period, unable to wait for the explanation. 

"Get on with it, man! Tell me!"

Josh gives him a weird look. "Why are you so eager to find out?..."

Louis tries his best to keep his face blank as he shrugs. "I don't know, Harry seemed so serious when he called himself her boyfriend yesterday. I just want to know why."

Josh seems to take the explanation as a serious one without questioning it, and Louis breathes a small sigh of relief. "Okay, so I was in the journalism classroom and I-"

"Louis!"

Louis groans.

Whoever it is that just interrupted Josh's explanation is about to lose a finger, because Louis's been waiting all morning for this and hell if he has to wait any longer. 

The mystery person slips an arm around Louis's shoulders, and Louis's well prepared to yell at them and push them off, but then he sees who it is. 

"Oh, hey Chad."

"You didn't wait for me today," Chad says with a tiny pout, and Louis shrugs, gently removing his arm from around Louis's shoulders. "Sorry Chad, I had wanted to talk to Josh about something is all."

Chad's eyebrows furrow in confusion. Louis suddenly feels bad for upsetting him. "Oh, I see. Okay then, I guess- I guess I'll just talk to you later?"

Louis smiles at him. "Yeah, definitely. Sorry Chad, I'll see you!"

Chad perks up a bit, smiling back, and nods before waving at Louis one last time and heading off. 

Louis turns back to Josh. "Well?"

Josh is chuckling, and looks like he's about to comment on Chad's sudden appearance, but Louis glared. "Don't even talk about it, Josh. Just continue with what you were saying."

"Okay, okay, calm yourself Lou. So, I was in the classroom and I was talking to him, and we were talking about couples and things, and then I asked - oh shit."

Louis clenches his jaw. He feels like steam is about to blow out of his ears, because seriously like come on.

"Why'd you stop?"

Josh doesn't answer, his eyes on someone to Louis's left, and Louis turns around and squeaks. 

"Hey guys," a deep voice rumbles, honey-slow and holy eep why.

"Hi Harry," Josh replies brightly, as if he and Louis hadn't just been talking about Harry mere seconds ago. 

Louis just nods at him in acknowledgement, not trusting himself to speak. 

Harry's gaze lingers on Louis for a few seconds, his eyes alight and a smirk playing across his lips. His expression is thoughtful, curious, and slightly amused. His smirk widens into a smile, and he runs a hand through his hair before giving them one last nod and walking past them. 

Josh laughs once he's out of earshot. "Oops."

Louis swallows thickly. 

"Anyways," Josh continues as Louis wills his heart to slow down, "I asked him, I was like, 'Are you and Cara dating?' and he just looked at me and laughed."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah, seriously! He just shook his head and was like 'Nah, we're not.' And then he asked me why I was asking, and I said 'Oh, because someone told me they heard you calling yourself her boyfriend,' and he was like 'Was it someone who heard me comment about the Nutella thing?'"

The lump in Louis's throat is back. "Uh," he says, his voice coming out all scratchy, and he coughs. "Uh, and what did you say?"

"Oh, I told him it was you."

Louis's sure, that in that moment, all of the color drains out of his face. His mouth falls open a bit, and his eyes widen. "What the fuck?!" he hisses, lightly smacking Josh on the arm. "Ow!" Josh exclaims, "What was that for?!"

"You told him?! Why would you do that?!"

"I don't know, because he asked, that's why! Why do you care so much?"

"He didn't even actually ask who it was! And I care because I listened in on his conversation! He's going to think I'm a stalker!"

Josh rolls his eyes. "Calm down, Lou. I haven't finished yet, you'll want to hear the next part before you start screaming at me."

Louis sighs. "Fine. Go. I'm still mad at you though."

"So, I said 'Yeah, it was Louis,' and then he was like 'Ohhhh!' in that slow way that he does, you know? And then -- here's the big plot twist -- out of nowhere, he's just like, 'Louis's so great.' "

Louis's breath hitches. He tries to say something, but no sound comes out. 

"And then he continues on and is like 'I was only saying that I was her boyfriend because our math teacher likes to tease us about how he thinks we're dating, but we're just friends. I can understand why he'd be confused though,' and then I was like 'Yeah, wow that's pretty confusing. But. Yeah. Okay. And yeah, Louis's awesome.' And then he kind of smiled and was like 'Yeah, Louis's really great.' "

Louis still hasn't found his voice. 

Josh elbows him lightly, a jokingly exaggerated smile on his face. "See that, Lou? He loves you! He thinks you're great! So, if he loves you, he doesn't think you're a stalker, so you don't have to be mad at me! We all win!"

Louis just coughs, and Josh merely raises his eyebrows at him before saying something about how he has to go to the bathroom, and leaves Louis with a quick pat on the back and a "See you later dude."

So that's why Harry looked at him like that when he passed by them a minute ago. 

Wow.

"Great."

Louis is "great."

A smile breaks out across Louis's face. No, not a smile, more like a grin -- a huge, face-spliting grin. He's fucking beaming as he walks to his locker.

Wait 'til he tells Zayn.

****

"Please go with me?!"

Louis can't help but smile when Tom gives him the puppy eyes. "Fine, I'll go."

Tom fist-pumps. "Yes! Come on!"

He walks toward the door, looking back to make sure Louis's following.

They are, again, doing nothing in their debate class. Tom asked Louis if he wanted to go with him to visit the kids in the journalism class, because they don't really do anything that often either -- not in class at least -- and after some begging, Louis gave in. 

He texts Zayn as they walk down the stairs of the building, telling him that he and Tom are going to be visiting. He then stuffs his phone in his pocket and looks up at Tom, only to find Tom smiling at him.

Louis suddenly feels self-conscious. "Um. Hi?"

Tom laughs. "Hi, Louis."

They exchange some light banter as they make their way over to the journalism classroom, and when they finally turn the corner, Louis is very pleased. 

The first person he sees is Zayn, on a bench right outside the classroom. He's scribbling on a worksheet -- probably math, he never does his math homework at home, always saying that he'll just do it during journalism instead -- but looks up when Louis and Tom get closer. He smiles at Louis and nods, and Louis waves back. 

The second person he sees is Chad, leaning against the wall by the door and talking to some other guy. A huge smile comes over Chad's face when he sees Louis, but it then falters slightly when he sees Tom walking with him -- walking so close, in fact, that their sides are nearly pressed together. His eyes narrow slightly. "Hi Louis!" he says loudly, and Louis laughs. "Hi Chad!"

And now, the best part.

The third person he sees is Harry, who is standing a little ways away from the room's entrance, talking to some people sitting on the bench next to Zayn's. And Harry only turns around when he hears Chad call Louis's name out across the hall. 

Harry's eyebrows quirk up. He looks at Louis, and then looks at Chad, seeming slightly confused. But his eyes nearly pop out of his head when he sees Tom.

He doesn't say hello to either of them. Neither of them say hello to Harry.

After a second, Harry tilts his head slightly, eyebrows furrowed as he studies Tom. Then, his gaze turns back to Louis, and Louis ducks his head. Harry continues looking between the two of them as they walk toward the room. Tom doesn't seem to notice any of it.

He and Tom chat with a few people inside the classroom, and after a few minutes, Louis sees Harry walk into the room out of the corner of his eye. He glances over at Louis and Tom, then goes into one of the cubicles -- where some other people are sitting and talking -- and shuts the door behind him. 

Louis pouts slightly. He had really hoped Harry would come talk to them. 

After a bit longer, Louis gets a text from Niall asking where he went. Louis nudges Tom. "Let's go back."

Tom nods, saying a quick goodbye to the people he was talking to and walking Louis to the door with a hand on the small of his back.

Louis glances at Harry through the cubicle window in the classroom -- he's laughing with Nick, not looking towards them at all -- and sighs. 

It was worth a shot.


	10. Chapter 10

January 2014

****

"This has probably been the best break ever, am I right?"

Louis snorts. "Says you. You went to Cabo, I was stuck here."

Louis and Zayn are walking side by side in the locker hall on the first day back from winter break, pushing amongst the hoards of people going every which way. 

"Nah, I'm not talking about Cabo. Though that was pretty fantastic," Zayn continues, and Louis rolls his eyes. "I mean like, it was two weeks. Two whole weeks off from school. And then there was, like, Christmas and everything. And you had your birthday!"

Louis shrugs. "The break from waking up early and doing work and stuff was nice. Nothing else exciting, though." They finally make it to Louis's locker, and Louis quickly twists in the combination.

"God, Lou, you're such a downer. Why do I even talk to you?"

Louis play-shoves him into the lockers. "You'd be nothing without me, Zayn, and you know it."

"I disagree. Because, no. And like, let's not even get started about-"

There's a pause, and Louis looks up at Zayn from where he'd been shoving a binder into his backpack. "Zayn?"

"Um, I think I should go, Louis. I think -- I think I've got somewhere to be. Bathroom. Or. Yeah. Bye," he says hurriedly, starting to walk away.

"Wait, Zayn! Why -- "

Zayn just turns back briefly to give Louis a wide-eyed look before scurrying away, disappearing among the mass of backpacks and chatter of the locker hall. 

Louis just sighs and continues thumbing through the textbooks, notebooks, and binders in his locker. What else does he need again? 

Right, his Spanish textbook. That's important. 

"Hi."

Huh?

Louis nearly drops his book.

Harry's leaning against the wall of lockers, standing where Zayn had been not even a minute ago. Zayn's sudden exit completely makes sense now. 

Where the fuck did he even come from?

"Um. Hi."

Louis's eyeing him weirdly, unable to understand what's happening.

Maybe this is a dream. Maybe Harry wants homework answers from him, or something. Maybe this is some kind of sick joke that Harry and his friends are attempting to play on him. 

Harry stares right back, lips turned up into an amused half-smile. 

After a bit longer, Louis raises an eyebrow. "So...um. Why are you here?"

Harry shifts against the lockers, crossing his arms. He's got a different sort of glint in his eye, and Louis thinks that maybe, just maybe, the fearless Harry Styles might actually be nervous. "Well. To talk to you. Unless, you know, you'd like me to leave?"

Louis's astonished. "Oh. Um. No, you're fine. As in, you don't have to leave or anything." He finally gets his Spanish book into his backpack and slams his locker door shut. 

He turns to face Harry again, and Harry isn't moving. Louis just kind of fidgets awkwardly. 

"So." Harry says, and Louis just can't breathe. Harry's eyes are right there and they're so pretty and there's this lump in this throat that Louis can't get rid of, and if Harry really did want to talk to him, Louis's completely ruining it right now by being his terribly awkward self. 

"You and Tom, huh?" Harry asks, and wow, Louis wasn't expecting the conversation to go in that direction.

"Sorry? Me and Tom?"

"Yeah. Aren't you guys, like, sorta together?"

Louis laughs, and then covers his mouth quickly when he realizes that Tom is Harry's best friend and that Louis is laughing about the possibility of dating him and he probably just seems like a massive jerk. "No, not at all. We're. Um. We're just friends, is all."

Harry runs a hand through his hair. "Oh really?"

"Yeah, really."

"Because, I don't know, it seemed to me like you guys were. You know. Really touchy and stuff."

Louis shrugs. "I don't know. It's just, for me, we're not like that. Tom is an awesome friend, but. Nothing more."

Harry's eyebrows just pull together, and he nods. 

"Why, did he ask you to ask me, or something? Oh god, he's going to hate me now, isn't he? Fuck."

Harry snorts. "No, he didn't. I was just. Kind of. I don't know. Curious."

Curious? Curious why? (Also, what the fuck???)

The bell rings, and Louis starts. He had completely forgotten where he was, because of Harry's... well, Harry-ness distracting him. 

"Which way are you headed?" Harry asks, pushing off the wall of lockers and shoving his hands in his pockets. Louis gestures to the right, and Harry nods. "I'll come with."

Louis can't even respond to that, mind spinning from the mere idea that Harry fucking Styles is walking with him to class. He doesn't even realize that he's perplexedly watching Harry walk beside him until Harry glances over and gives him a little smile, his green eyes lighting up a bit. Louis blushes and ducks his head. 

"So, what class have you got?" Harry asks, voice rumbling quietly. Harry's walking really close to him all of a sudden, and Louis forgets the question. 

"Class?" he repeats stupidly, to which Harry gives him a confused look. Louis clears his throat. "Right. Class. Um, I have psychology."

Harry whistles. "That's one hell of a class. I've heard it's near impossible. Do you like it?"

Louis shrugs. "Workload sucks. Subject's interesting, though."

"So the class isn't killing you? Straight A-s?"

Louis ducks his head again.

Harry playfully shoves Louis's arm. "Of course you are."

Louis looks up at Harry and sees him smiling down at Louis with something that looks like fondness in his eyes, and Louis is positively bewildered, because how could he be looking at Louis fondly -- how is this happening?

What the fuck is going on right now?

Harry gently touches Louis's arm in front of the history building where his psych classroom is, bringing them to a stop -- which is weird, because, shouldn't the psychology classes be in the science building? The school administration really needs to get their shit together -- and Harry looks like he's about to say something, but then thinks better of it and just sighs. "I should probably head off to English."

Louis's eyes nearly pop out of his head. "English? Harry, the English rooms are like, on the complete other side of the school, you're going to be late! You shouldn't have walked me, I --"

Harry laughs and rests one of his gigantic hands lightly on Louis's forearm. "It's fine, honestly. I'll be alright. Ms. West loves me anyways." He winks, and Louis giggles, and he can feel himself blushing and this is ridiculous but Harry looks pleased and that's all that really matters right now, isn't it?

Harry leans in closer, and Louis thinks to himself -- for the millionth time now -- that he doesn't know what the fuck is happening. "I'll see you in Spanish, yeah?" Harry says quietly, looking Louis in the eyes the entire time, and it feels so, so intimate and that should be so strange but it really isn't. 

"Yeah, see you," Louis whispers back, and then Louis blinks and Harry's gone.

Louis stands there, watching Harry confidently saunter away until he rounds the corner, before he finally makes his way towards the stairs to get to class.

****

Spanish is a strange affair. They change seats, and Harry now sits diagonally behind Louis a few rows to the right. He's very far away. And that makes Louis slightly sad.

He had spent all of lunch gushing to Zayn about what had happened earlier that day, with Harry walking him to class, and Zayn had, surprisingly, seemed just as excited as Louis was. 

The new year is off to a pretty great start so far. 

Class is uneventful. Louis's heading out of the room with Josh, as per usual, when a third pair of feet joins them. A pair of feet clad in painfully hipster, ragged leather boots. 

Josh falls silent, just looks up at Harry a bit in awe.

And Louis can't breathe, so.

"Josh. Louis," Harry says in acknowledgement. Louis gives him a small smile in response, while Josh just sputters. 

The three walk in silence, until they come to the hallway where Josh has to turn right and Louis has to turn left. "Bye Josh, I'll see you," Louis calls out after him as he turns, and Josh just nods, watching Harry continue on with Louis. "I'll call you Louis, yeah?"

Louis gives him a thumbs up in response and Harry chuckles. 

Louis turns to Harry, smiling slightly. "What's so funny?"

Harry shakes his head, smiling and ducking his face down. Louis doesn't think he's ever seen anything so beautiful. "You've got all the boys running after you, haven't you?"

Louis's absolutely stunned. Which seems to be happening quite a lot today. "What?"

Harry scoffs. "Don't play dumb, Louis. Tom, Josh, Chad...just to name a few."

"Chad? Where'd Chad come from?"

Harry just shrugs and looks down at his feet as he walks.

Louis sighs. "Harry, seriously. Josh and Chad and Tom are just my friends. Why do you keep asking about guys anyways?"

Harry shrugs. "I see things. I hear things."

"Harry, we don't know each other."

Louis curses himself for blurting out that sentence the second he says it. He doesn't want Harry to stop talking to him, by any means. And he just made it sound like he wanted Harry to go away.

Harry's facial expression barely falters, though. Something different flashes in his eyes and he shoves his hands in his pockets, walking slower. Louis is honestly expecting him to say a quick goodbye and leave, because Louis's such a fucking weirdo.

But what happens is hardly what he had expected.

Harry stops completely, and tilts his head downward, giving the ground a close-lipped smile. "I'm being creepy, aren't I?"

Oh.

Louis's just standing there with this flabbergasted look on his face. 

Harry's looking at him expectantly, and he doesn't know what to say.

"Harry!" someone calls out, and Louis turns around to see that Nick is walking towards them. He gives Louis a look. "Hi Louis?" he says, the greeting coming out more like he's asking "Why are you here and talking to Harry?," and Louis rolls his eyes. 

Harry's teeth are gnawing on his bottom lip as he looks from Nick to Louis then back to Nick. He seems anxious, and Louis's very, very confused. 

He's still looking at Louis expectantly, though. Louis, still confused as all hell, doesn't say anything. 

After a bit of the three of them just standing there -- Louis trying to hide his face, Harry waiting for Louis to speak, and Nick looking between them and checking his watch awkwardly -- Nick hip-checks Harry. "We're going to be late for practice, H. Let's go."

Harry snaps out of it. "Oh, right. Um. Yeah, we should go. I'll, um, I'll talk to you later, Louis."

Harry's avoiding his eyes, and is determinedly staring at the floor in front of him as he walks away, Louis calling out a weak "Bye" after them.

****

Louis wants to bash his face into a wall. 

Harry legitimately wanted to talk to him. Harry thought he was coming off as creepy. Harry didn't want to look bad in front of Louis. 

And Louis fucking went and ruined it all. 

He calls Zayn upon getting home, and rants to Zayn about the woes of his existence, while Zayn attempts to comfort him. 

Louis spends the rest of the night listening to music, not even bothering to do his homework. 

****

A few days pass. Harry doesn't speak to Louis. Louis doesn't speak to Harry. 

Louis is truly beginning to lose all hope and is considering becoming a hermit, but then Friday happens.

So, they're having an in-class party in Spanish, which means food. Lots and lots of food. And Louis's quite excited about it. 

When he gets to class, he sees large platters of food on a table against the wall, and he practically sprints toward it, filling a plate with a little bit of everything. He goes to sit at a random seat in the back of the room, and a few minutes later, Josh joins him. Everyone's milling about and eating and talking. Ms. Felise is playing Spanish music. It's a pretty chill class, nothing much is happening. 

But then. 

Harry walks over to Josh and Louis from where he'd been talking to Drew and Cara on the other side of the room, and sits on the tabletop of the desk in front of Louis, so that he's facing Louis with his feet on the seat. "Hey guys," he says with a shaky voice, and Josh is looking at Louis with that incredulous look on his face again. 

Louis ignores him though. This is his chance at redemption. He may not get another one.

He smiles up at Harry. "Hi Harry, how's it going?"

Harry relaxes and gives Louis a relieved grin. Score. "Doing alright, actually. And you?"

Louis can't respond though, because a few other students come over to sit by them -- gravitating around Harry, as usual. Someone takes Harry's attention away from Louis, and Louis sighs and turns back to Josh and another girl, the three of them talking about something or other. Josh is giving him weird glances out of the corner of his eye, but he ignores it. 

"Everyone, do you want to say hello to Ms. Ramirez's daughter?" Ms. Felise suddenly calls out from by the door. Everyone turns around to see Ms. Felise standing next to Ms. Ramirez, who is carrying a tiny girl of about two years of age.

A chorus of "Awww"s is cooed all across the room, and Harry's eyes get soft and wide. He's got this smile on his face and Louis can't breathe, honestly, because he's so fucking adorable it's not fucking fair. 

Harry turns around and sees Louis watching him, and shoots him a grin, before turning back to the girl he was talking to. 

Louis blushes red-hot. 

After a few minutes, the conversation Harry is having with the girl -- Louis thinks her name is Ally or something -- opens up to the entire circle of people in their corner of the room. 

"Harry, I'm being serious!" Ally says flirtily, and Harry raises his eyebrows. "Really?"

"Yes! I babysat for Mr. Stevens last Friday night, and his kids are huge."

Louis furrows his eyebrows. Everyone else laughs, and someone shouts out a "Really? That's hilarious."

Ally nods rapidly. "They're literally obese, I'm not even joking. And all they were doing all night was eating. It was so nasty."

Louis mouth has fallen open a little bit in disgust, and he gives Ally a look before turning away to take a sip from his cup of water. How awful, she's literally talking shit about little middle schoolers. They're just children! She has no right to say those stupid things about them, honestly. 

He's feeling slightly angry and protective now, even though he doesn't really like Mr. Stevens very much himself. It's just annoying to him that people can be so completely and utterly insensitive. 

Everyone around him is laughing. Louis is disgusted. 

He looks up then, at Harry, and his heart swells a little bit.

Harry's not laughing. He's watching him, and when he sees Louis make eye contact with him, he pouts a little too. He then leans in and whispers in Louis's ear, "I know."

Chills tingle all over Louis's entire body, and he feels a little bit better about the entire situation, knowing that at least Harry isn't a jerk like the rest of them. 

The topic changes to YouTube videos, and Harry insists on showing everyone a video that he swears is absolutely hilarious.

It ends up being a video a sneezing kitten, and Harry's laughing so hard and it really isn't that funny but everyone laughs, of course, because it's Harry.

And throughout the entire thing, Harry's laughing and looking at Louis, looking to see if Louis's laughing and talking directly to Louis.

And Louis has probably never been happier.

****

History the next morning is spent with Harry talking to Louis and Louis only; the two of them whispering close, and Harry laughing at all of Louis's lame jokes and looking at him with this sort of wide-eyed earnesty. He sometimes laughs so hard that he goes red in the face. It all tickles Louis's heart, to be honest. 

Nothing is sinking in, really. One moment, Harry didn't know he existed. Now, Harry's going out of his way to talk to Louis in class, and it's absolutely fabulous.

He kind of feels like they're friends. 

And fuck, of course he likes Harry and wants to date him, but.

For now, he thinks as he's listening to Harry attempt to make him laugh with another one of his stupid knock-knock jokes, he'll take it.


	11. Chapter 11

February 2014

****

"Oh stop your moaning and groaning, I'm assigning you this project and that is that!"

Louis rolls his eyes when Mr. Stevens isn't looking, catching Niall's eye from across the room and making a face. Niall turns away to hide his grin. 

"It's going to be a partner project," Mr. Stevens continues, and a wave of whispering consumes the classroom, peoples' eyes perking up as they turn around to make eye contact with their best friends and start silently agreeing to be partners. Louis gives Niall a questioning look himself, and Niall nods. Louis settles back into his seat, satisfied; partner projects with Niall are always the best. Even if they never really get much work done. 

"Don't get too excited though, because I'm assigning you your partners this time." 

The class starts groaning again, and Louis pouts. 

No. 

"Your project is to pick five of the most prominent and influential figures of American history, from the revolutionary era all the way through post-civil war reconstruction, and then write a paper about them. More information is on the handout I've placed on the stool by the door; be sure to grab one on your way out."

The bell rings as soon as he finishes his sentence, and Louis sighs, putting away his things. 

"You'll be getting your partner assignments tomorrow!" Stevens calls out over the rustling of papers, the zipping of backpacks, and the chatter of students. 

Niall is waiting for Louis at the door by the time Louis gets his things together. Louis heaves his backpack over his shoulder with a loud sigh. 

Someone pokes him in the side, and Louis turns around with a smile already in place -- because, who else could it be?

"Don't be so down, Lou. If you sigh too much, you'll deflate!"

"That wasn't funny Harry."

The hopeful smile that had been on Harry's face falls into a grimace, though the light in his eyes doesn't fade. "I'll get you eventually."

Louis rolls his eyes and smiles, despite himself. "You keep trying," he calls over his shoulder as he makes his way over to Niall.

"Oh I will, that's a promise!"

Louis's still smiling as he and Niall walk out the door. 

"Y'know," Niall says quietly as they make their way to the stairs, with Harry and Cara trailing somewhere behind them. "He doesn't seem all that bad."

"Told you," Louis says smugly, and Niall scoffs. "You're disgusting."

"But you love me."

"Eh."

****

"Now, onto the next order of business: partnerships."

Louis sits up straighter in his seat. 

"Now, keep in mind, these were completely random, I literally closed my eyes and pointed to names on my class roster. So don't be angry if I didn't pair you with your best friends."

Louis crosses his arms and leans back in his chair, trying his hardest not to send Stevens his patented dirty glare.

It's quite hard to keep a straight face.

Louis settles for glaring at the surface of his desk instead.

"Since I'm an oh-so generous teacher, I've decided to give you the entire class period today to prep with your partner and choose the people you're going to write about, and the common theme that ties them together. You may even have the time to get started, and I'd advise you not waste it; this project is going to be due next Friday, so you don't have too long to get it done."

Harry turns around in his seat, leaning over towards Louis. He opens his mouth like he's about to say something, but then gets a confused look on his face, and doesn't.

"What?" Louis whispers. Harry tilts his head to the side. "I forgot."

"Dork."

"Not even."

"Yes even."

"No."

"Very even, actually."

"Stop."

"Bye."

"Oh."

"Mr. Styles!" Stevens calls out, and Harry whips around in his seat. "Sorry," he squeaks quietly, and Stevens glares at him a bit before turning back to the class.

Louis tries his best to muffle his giggles. 

It doesn't work. When Stevens is turned away, Harry turns around to smack his arm.

"When I call out your partner, please move to sit with them. Abrams, Goldstein!"

Louis starts messing with the hem of his t-shirt, dreading the moment his name is called. He hates partner projects -- when he can't choose his partner, that is.

"Tomlinson, Grimshaw!"

And this is why.

Louis swallows thickly and turns around toward where Nick sits, and Nick gives him a small nod in acknowledgement. Ew. 

"Styles, Horan!"

Oh.

Um.

Well.

Louis makes eye contact with Niall, who's got a shit-eating grin on his face. Fuck. 

Harry's already lugging his things over to where Niall sits, and Louis wants to punch himself in the face. 

He can see Nick watching him expectantly out of the corner of his eye, but no. Louis Tomlinson does not move to please the Nicks of the world, thank you very much. 

By the time Nick has finally put two and two together (yeah, surprising, right?) and has come over and sat in the seat next to Louis, Stevens's booming voice is reverberating around the classroom once more. "Sorry it seems I made a mistake here! I misread the partnerships; Horan, you're partners with Grimshaw. Tomlinson, it's you and Styles. My apologies for the mistake."

He can feel Harry's eyes on him already, and Louis's trying so hard not to blush. He ducks his head instead, writing "History Project" along the top line of the piece of paper he'd gotten out for sketching out ideas.

"Sorry Nick, this seat's taken," Harry's voice rumbles from someplace much too close to his ear, and Louis's heart stutters. Isn't he supposed to be over this by now?

Harry and Louis started talking to each other -- on a regular basis -- nearly an entire month ago. They've been friends for a month.

Louis shouldn't react so strongly to these things anymore, he thinks as he quickly thumbs out a text to Zayn. He should be used to Harry's presence by now.

asofijwioefjeijfioejfe

Zayn responds almost immediately. 

what'd he do this time

Louis smiles. Zayn knows him so well. 

"Ahem."

"Oh, sorry Harry. Hi."

Harry presses his lips together, as if he's trying to hold back a laugh. "Hi Louis."

Silence.

"So, how about this project, huh?" Louis says, and then mentally cringes. Why is this suddenly so awkward for him? He's been talking to Harry for weeks without being a dumbass. Now is not the time to bring back the stupid Louis, thanks. Get yourself together, Tommo. 

"Yeah, it's quite the project innit."

"Mhm, I'd say so."

Harry's still smiling at him like that, like he's trying not to laugh, and it's getting quite irritating. "Are you laughing at me?" 

Harry's smile grows wider. "No, why would you think that?"

"Because - because that," Louis says, gesturing to Harry's face with his index finger and waving it around. Harry seems immensely amused. 

"Why on earth would I ever laugh at you, Louis?" Harry flutters his eyelashes. Louis cringes.

"That's creepy. Don't do that."

Harry pouts. "I am not creepy."

"When you flutter your eyelashes like a child you are."

"I don't flutter my eyelashes like a child. My eyelash fluttering is very mature, thank you very much."

Louis thinks he might die, probably.

"I didn't know 'mature' eyelash fluttering was a thing, Styles."

Louis's phone buzzes in his hand. 

cmon lou don't be like that, you have to tell me what happened now did he profess his undying love for you yet

Louis blushes, about to reply to Zayn when Harry's hand shoots out and snatches Louis's phone from him. 

Shit.

"Who you texting?" Harry asks, about to look at the screen when Louis grabs for the phone, covering the screen with his palm and trying to wrench it out of Harry's grip. "Ooh, it's a secret, isn't it?" Harry says teasingly, "I have to read it now."

"No you don't," Louis says through gritted teeth. "Give it back Harry."

"Hmm I don't think so."

"Harry!"

Harry's grip on the phone only tightens, and Louis actually feels tears prickling in his eyes. "Harry please," he says angrily, and his voice cracks and wow, that's so embarrassing, but it makes Harry loosen his grip. Louis quickly grabs his phone and brings it up to his chest, making sure to lock the screen as he does so.

"Oh -- Louis, I -- I'm sorry. I didn't know that, um, that it was that big a deal?"

Louis raises his eyebrows at him.

"I meant -- um. Sorry. I was just messing around is all. I wasn't ever going to actually read your messages, those are private of course and -- and I didn't want to make you angry."

Louis sighs, because Harry looks sincere and kind of scared and Louis tries to ignore how it makes his stomach feel. "It's fine, really. Don't worry about it."

"You sure? I'm sorry."

"Yes, I'm sure."

"Okay. Cool."

Louis's not quite sure how to respond to that, but he's saved by the ringing of the bell. He looks down at the blank sheet of paper sitting on his desk, and then back up at Harry with a small smile. "We're very productive."

Harry laughs, the uncomfortable tension between them fading within seconds. "Oops. Here, why don't we work on it tonight instead?"

"Tonight?" Louis squeaks, and Harry nods slowly. "Unless you're busy? In which case, we can work on it some other time. It's just, I haven't got water polo practice after school today. So. I thought it'd be good to get a bunch out of the way so we're not bogged down later."

Louis tries to slow his breathing. It's fine. Harry just asked him to work on a project with him, is all. It's not like they're actually hanging out after school or anything, as if they're friends outside of school. Ha. No. Not at all. They're like, classroom friends. It's just for a project. He shouldn't be freaking out about this. 

"Um," he says as soon as he's got his thoughts together, "No, tonight's fine. What time works best for you?"

Harry makes a contemplative face, before he shrugs. "Honestly, I've no idea. Why don't you give me your number so that I can just text you, s'that alright?"

Louis can't breathe. "Yeah," he manages to choke out, "Yeah, that's completely fine." He rattles off his digits to Harry, who simultaneously taps out the numbers and saves Louis to his contacts list. He smiles at Louis as he pockets his phone, and stands up and stretches. "Louis, have you got your license?" He asks as he's hit his stretch-peak, his voice coming out lower than usual and his shirt riding up dangerously over his lower stomach. He's so close that if Louis moved his face forward a mere inch, he'd be --

Woah. Stop. Dangerous thoughts.

"Sorry?" Louis asks, blushing. "License?"

Harry just gives him a look. "Yeah. License. As in, can you drive?"

"Oh. That. Um, no I can't. I'm a little late getting all of that done."

Harry shakes his head at him in mock-disappointment. "You're blowing it, Lou."

Louis, being Louis, interprets that sentence in an entirely different way and nearly chokes on air.

"I'll text you the time then, and I'll come pick you up. We can go to a coffee shop or something."

Louis just nods, barely able to give Harry a weak "Sounds good" before Harry nods and walks away.

Louis sits in his seat a bit longer, dazed at everything that's happened within the past fifteen minutes, before he realizes that class is over. And that he really needs to get to English. 

His phone buzzes in his pocket again. Louis fishes it out to see another text from Zayn on the screen. 

?!?!?!?!?!?!?

Louis rolls his eyes. He doesn't think there'd be any harm in making Zayn wait a bit longer for an explanation.

Nope, no harm at all.

****

Louis doesn't blush when he gets a text of a whale emoji from an unknown number during English class. Not even a little bit. 

His heart doesn't flutter in his chest when he responds with a monkey emoji, either. Or when he saves the number as Harry in his contacts (yes, he knows it's a boring contact name, but what else was he going to do, honestly) and stares at it a bit while the teacher is distracted with a class discussion on The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

Because, Louis's not a child. Louis doesn't care.

Louis's fine.

Really.

****

Zayn lightly smacks him on the side of the head when he sees him during morning break.

"You're a dolt."

Louis just shrugs in response, and Zayn smacks him again.

****

im here, come outside :) 

Louis's heart stops as he reads the text, and then he jolts again as his phone buzzes with a follow-up text of a cat emoji.

His emotions are twisted into a mixture of fondness and absolute terror.

"I'm leaving!" Louis calls out to his mom, shouldering his backpack as he makes his way toward the door. He waits for her response of "Have fun, text me when you two get there!" before stepping outside.

Louis gets a blurry glimpse of Harry's floppy hair through the dim window of his car -- a ratty old Toyota Corolla that Louis is absolutely endeared with upon seeing -- and he nearly forgets how to breathe. 

Calm the fuck down, Tomlinson. It's just Harry. Whatever.

He opens the door and slides into the seat, slamming it shut behind him. "Hey," he says a bit breathlessly, and Harry grins toothily back at him. "Hey yourself," he says. He then proceeds to simply stare at Louis, and Louis feels uncomfortable. "Well? Aren't we going to go?"

"No."

Louis quirks an eyebrow.

Harry stares at him expectantly, like Louis's supposed to get something.

He's getting nothing.

"What?"

Harry sighs. "Your seatbelt, Louis. Duh."

"Oh," Louis rolls his eyes. "Right. That." Only Harry, honestly.

He quickly buckles himself in, and then turns back to Harry. "Better?"

Harry smirks as he shifts the car into drive. "Much."

Louis's phone buzzes in his pocket as Harry's pulling away from the curb, and he shifts in his seat to take it out. He slides open the screen and sees that it's from Zayn.

good luck tonight aha

Louis scoffs at Zayn's mockery, locking his phone and shoving it into the front pocket of his backpack as Harry glances at him curiously out of the corner of his eye.

He gives Harry a small smile -- which Harry returns hesitantly -- before turning his head to the side with the excuse of fixing his fringe, while in reality he's just blushing like mad and trying to hide his embarrassing-ness from the beautiful boy whose car he's currently in and who is taking him to a fucking coffee shop to study history, of all things, and wow, breathe Louis breathe. 

See, it's even gotten to the point where he's fucking rambling in his thoughts because he's so nervous. Another wave of heat burns in his cheeks as he sighs quietly.

Good luck? He'll need it.


	12. Chapter 12

Louis is very, very fond of car rides. In fact, he likes them so much that sometimes, he's actually disappointed when he finally reaches his destination, because he'll have to shut off his music and get out of the cozy, comfortable vehicle and interact with people on the outside and it's so much work.

This time, though, it's different.

Louis's in Harry's car. Louis is feeling claustrophobic. Yes, Louis is feeling claustrophobic and very nauseous. 

Louis needs to get out of the car. 

Does he try to talk to Harry? Should he just continue avoiding eye contact? Would it be weird to, like, look at him for a second? What if Louis smells? What if Harry changes his mind and turns around to take Louis back home because Louis's not cool enough for him? What if Harry's only pretending to want to be Louis's friend?

He's going to be sick.

And what's worse, is that the coffee shop Harry wants to go to isn't exactly close to Louis's house. So, they're looking at a fifteen minute drive -- maybe twenty, depending on how many red lights they hit -- until Louis can get out of this suffocating metal death trap.

Okay, maybe he's exaggerating a little. But, he's having a panic attack, so he thinks he's justified.

"So Louis," Harry says with a smile, and Louis swallows thickly. "I heard our school's debate team had a huge competition last weekend. Did you go?"

Louis shifts in his seat, trying to get more comfortable. "Yeah, I did! It went great, we won the award for best school which was beyond exciting."

Harry's face lights up and he smiles all big and wide and toothy, and Louis feels his heart fill up with an inexplicable fondness for this boy, because Harry cares about the debate team of all things, a team that he isn't even part of. He's genuinely happy for them. With everyone nowadays being on the defensive when it comes to anything and everything and only caring about themselves, it's really difficult to find genuine, caring people.

But Louis thinks he's struck gold.

"That's fantastic, Lou! I hear you guys are really great, one of the top teams in the nation!"

Louis laughs a bit, looking down at his feet. "Yeah, I mean. Could say that. But our team is full of really talented people, it's all a team effort and it's the fact that we've supported each other so much throughout all of our conferences that's gotten us that title. So. Yeah."

Harry turns to give Louis another blinding smile before focusing on the road. "Yeah, I'm really good friends with a lot of people on the team. Your boyfriend Tom, for example," he says, trying to hold back his laughter. He's eyeing Louis out of the corner of his eye in a way that he probably thinks is sneaky, but is actually so blatantly obvious that Louis wants to punch him (lightly) in the arm.

So he does. 

Harry laughs. "Okay, okay, sorry. You're 'just friends.' " He says that last part in a one-handed air quote, and Louis punches him again. 

"Anyways," Harry continues, ignoring Louis's irritation. "There are some pretty cool people on the debate team. Like, Will's nice. And George seems like a chill guy as well. I don't know him too well, but I've talked to him a few times. Real easygoing."

Louis stiffens up a bit, and turns to look out the window, refusing to meet Harry's eyes. He clenches his hand into a fist underneath his leg, so that Harry won't see it, and doesn't say anything in response.

"Do you know Will? Or George?" Harry says after a bit of a pause, clearly trying to keep their conversation going.

Louis waits a while before responding, choosing his words carefully. He's quite certain that he looks very uncomfortable. "Yeah, I guess you could say that."

Harry's either oblivious to Louis's discomfort, or he's a really good actor. Judging from the fact that it's Harry, though, Louis' going to assume that it's the former. 

"I was talking to Will today actually," Harry goes on, "About us being partners for this project. He said you two are really good friends."

Louis visibly relaxes, heart stuttering because Harry was talking about him with other people. That's got to mean something, right? "Yeah, Will's a great guy. We've known each other for ages, since we were like ten years old or something."

"He really is. I only met him, like, last year though. I wish I'd known him earlier. Seems like the kind of guy you can really count on, you know?"

Louis nods. "That he is."

"George, though, I can't seem to really get a read on," Harry muses, and Louis stiffens again, wanting to fling himself through the car windshield. "He seems nice enough, but I feel like he's just kind of. I don't know. Um. Strange? Not in a bad way, just. He's not a very open guy, is he?"

Louis shrugs, not trusting himself to speak. His fingernails are digging into his palm, and he tries to focus on reading the passing street names to distract himself. 

He needs Niall. He really, really needs Niall. Niall knows how Louis is, when it comes to George. Niall would know how to change the subject right now.

Harry nods and stays silent for a bit, glancing at Louis every so often. "Um," he says quietly after a bit. "Did -- did I upset you?"

Louis's eyes widen because no, he doesn't want Harry to feel like he's mad at him and could a person be more precious? He turns to face Harry. "No! No you didn't, not at all!"

Harry sucks his bottom lip into his mouth, gnawing on it with his teeth. "Oh. Okay. Good, then. You seemed kind of angry for a second there."

Louis doesn't say anything.

"So you were angry?"

Louis would be mad at Harry if he were anyone else, for asking so many questions and being nosy. He knows his intentions are pure though, and so it's impossible to be even the slightest bit angry with him.

"I'm going to take that as a yes."

Maybe he's always been this nosy. He doesn't really mind too much, though, because Harry makes nosiness cute.

"You don't have to tell me why," Harry says quietly, "if you don't want to. As long as you're not upset with me, I'm fine."

Louis laughs a bit here, because case in point and aw. "I'm not upset with you, I promise."

Harry smiles, and when Louis looks up, he sees that they're pulling into the coffee shop parking lot. Finally. 

As soon as Harry stops the car, Louis is pushing his way out in a flash, breathing in the cool evening air and tugging on the sleeves of his sweater. He feels instantly calmer, much less wound-up than he had been during the entirety of the car ride. He waits for Harry to make his way over to him, and then they walk to the entrance of the coffee shop together. 

Now, Louis probably should have prepared himself for what happens next, because Louis knows that he tends to have very bad luck in the worst possible situations. And he knows that this coffee shop in particular is a popular place for students from their school to meet up and do homework. He should have known that this would happen to him, especially after that car ride and the stilted conversation they'd just had right before they'd gotten there. 

Harry opens the door for Louis, and Louis would be blushing like a thirteen year old girl, but he's much too distracted with what's right in front of him to even comprehend what Harry just did for him, or to even say thank you. 

"Oh look!" Harry says, as soon as the door shuts behind him. "It's George! Hi George!" He waves to him happily, and George looks up from where he'd been typing away on his laptop at a corner table. His face falls, eyes darkening, as soon as he lays eyes on Louis.

The universe has got it out for Louis, he's sure of it.

****

Sitting at a small table off to the side of the queue -- Louis picked it, of course, to be as far away as possible from Geroge -- Harry looks bewildered.

Louis didn't ask for this shit, really.

"Louis, are you okay? Do you want me to take you home or something?"

"No!" Louis responds a bit too quickly and a bit too loudly, and he can practically feel George's eyes on the back of his head. "I mean, no. I'm fine. I'm just, a little uncomfortable is all."

"Oh. Um. Okay then. Can -- can I ask why?"

Harry looks genuinely baffled, and kind of upset too, and Louis sighs. He figures he owes Harry some sort of explanation, no matter how brief.

"Yeah, it's -- it's because of George. We haven't exactly...got on...well. In the past. So. Yeah."

Harry looks slightly relieved that he wasn't the cause of Louis's discomfort, but even more curious. "Oh. Really?" Louis can see Harry eyeing George over Louis's shoulder. "Don't look at him!" Louis hisses quietly, and Harry starts, eyes widening. "Sorry," he squeaks, and Louis can't hold back his answering grin. Harry's just so cute, and he makes Louis feel all these things and he seems so intimidating at first but in reality he's basically a curly bunny, and Louis loves it. And loves being with him, and being around him -- so much more than he'd ever liked being around George.

Louis turns around to glance at George over his shoulder, and sees that George is watching him with an unreadable expression on his face. He jumps when Louis makes eye contact with him though, and starts typing again, cheeks looking slightly pink. 

"Yeah, really. We just...yeah. We don't get along. So."

Harry tilts his head to the side, but asks no further questions. 

"So, history?" Louis says, and Harry's facial expression transforms into a small smile as he nods and takes out his notebook. Louis can't help but smile back as Harry starts spewing out presidential jargon about who knows what, and in that instant, he almost forgets about George entirely.

So yeah, Louis thinks he might be able to handle this.

****

Harry's going up to get a hot chocolate when disaster strikes.

As soon as Harry takes his place in the queue, George stands up and goes to wait behind him, nudging him in the arm and giving him a small smile in greeting. Harry turns around, and upon seeing who it is, gives Louis a small glance out of the corner of his eye before saying hello. 

George is saying something to Harry, and the blank expression on George's face makes Louis uncomfortable. Dread pools in his stomach, as he looks to Harry's face, and sees that Harry's actually started blushing, of all things. Harry says something in response, looking slightly nervous and fiddling with his long fingers. The line moves up one and Harry scrambles forward, turning his back to George in an effort to get away from him. Louis furrows his eyebrows, confused. 

George leans forward and whispers something to Harry before stepping back with a smirk, and when Harry turns around, Louis can see that he looks furious this time. He says something angrily, pink in the face, and George's expression wavers and he takes a step back. Louis can't hear what's happening very well, but he manages to make out that Harry's said "Louis" and "don't" in his terribly deep voice -- a voice that, somehow, seems to have gotten deeper in the last second. 

Just then, it's Harry's turn to order, and Harry attempts to compose his features into something more civil. 

He fails miserably. 

The cashier looks a bit more than flustered, and slightly scared at the sheer amount of anger present on Harry's face. Louis doesn't blame her. Even he's scared, and he's sitting on the opposite side of the room.

He's never seen Harry angry before, and the amount of contrast between this thunderous Harry and Harry's usual happy self is astounding. Curly bunny one second, angry lion the next.

Harry ends up just getting a muffin instead of a drink, and walks back over to Louis quickly, his features contorted into an expression of irritation. "I take back what I said. He's a right dick, that one."

Louis swallows thickly. "Um. Okay, I guess? Why?"

"He...he said things. Things that he shouldn't have said. At all. Like, he's. Ugh." Harry's clenching the muffin tight, and Louis has to pry it from his fingertips to keep it from crumbling. 

"What'd he say?"

"Nothing important. Bullshit, all of it."

"I heard you say my name."

Harry's eyes widen here, and Louis uses the opportunity to whittle away at the little dent in his resolve. "If it was about me, I think I have a right to know. Trust me, I'm used to this, when it comes to George. What'd he say?"

Harry swallows thickly. "Um."

Louis waits patiently, not taking his eyes off of Harry once. This seems to make Harry nervous though; he blushes, tapping his fingers on the tabletop. "He. Kind of. He said bad things. About you."

Louis sighs, feigning an expression of carelessness while in reality, his heart is about to jump out of his chest. "What kind of things?"

"I can't say, honestly."

"Yes you can. I can take it, I'm a big boy. No matter how hurtful it is. Hit me."

"A-are you sure?"

"Yes, 200%."

Harry takes a deep breath. "Okay. Well. First, he asked me if, like. If we were. Um. Never mind, actually. What he said was, he told me that you. Um. That you're, kind of. E-easy?"

Louis clenches his teeth together, carefully composing his features into an expression of indifference. He nods at Harry, who has gone from angry to terrified and cautious, to continue. "And, that. You're, like, a little bit of a...a slut?"

Louis lets a sharp breath out of his nose, and bites his lip, trying to ignore the tears that are threatening to build up in his eyes. "Oh."

Harry's silent.

"That's -- that's nothing new," Louis says after a bit of silence. "George is -- he's said all of that stuff to me, a lot of the time. Don't worry about it."

Harry's eyebrows pull together in a mixture of confusion and anger. "A lot of the time? What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well, we kind of. We kind of dated, a while ago."

Harry's mouth falls open. Louis continues. "And, I don't know, we kind of just didn't work out? But he kept texting and calling me afterwards, wanting to hook up and things. I always told him no, and he'd get kind of pissed about it, and call me things."

Harry's expression is now incredulous. "What the fuck? Are you kidding me?"

Louis just shakes his head, pressing his lips together into a bitter sort of smile. "No. I'm not. These things, he says them all the time. I've learned to just disregard it all because like, none of it's true. Plus, he's an attention whore anyways. Doesn't matter."

"Louis, that's so fucking stupid, you should put him in his place and tell him to shut the fuck up because he's just a jealous prick is all, and --"

Harry's voice is increasing in volume with every word he says, and Louis moves to gently put his hand over his forearm -- and surprised by his own boldness in doing so, honestly -- and shushes him. "It's fine. Really. I don't give a shit."

Louis wonders how transparent he is, right now. Wonders if Harry can see through him, see through this, see that it really does hurt him and that sometimes, George makes him really upset, even after all this time. He's angry with himself, really, and about how one moment he'll seem completely fine and he'll be able to handle himself in George's presence, but then something like this happens and he almost loses it -- this entire night in the coffee shop is proof of that.

He seriously needs Niall. 

"I think we should leave," is all that Louis can say after a few beats of silence, and Harry bites his lip and nods in agreement. They pack up their things and walk out of the coffee shop, Harry holding the door open for Louis again before he reaches over and takes Louis's hand, his grasp somehow soft and firm at the same time.

Harry's holding Louis's hand. Right outside the coffee shop. On the other side of its see-through glass door. 

Louis gasps quietly and stops walking, looking over at Harry, who's smiling at him sheepishly. They're just standing there, outside, and Harry's smiling in such a gentle, reassuring way -- in a way that shows Louis that he gives zero fucks whatever it is George thinks of Louis, and that he's got Louis's back. "Is -- is this okay?" Harry asks timidly, and Louis smiles down at his feet happily. "Yeah," he says softly, cheeks warming, "It's really, definitely okay."

Harry seems more than happy with that response, and leads Louis across the parking lot towards his car, and Louis-- well, he comes to a realization, an epiphany of sorts.

Yeah, George may have hurt him, back when they were dating a year or so ago. Yeah, their breakup really affected Louis, seeing as his relationship with George was the first actual relationship he'd ever really been in. But now...now, Louis doesn't have to let this fear of George control him anymore. What happened in the past doesn't mean that Louis has to go out of his way to avoid him. It doesn't mean that George should be able to ruin his mood simply by being in the same coffee shop as Louis. It doesn't mean that he can stop Louis from doing what he wants to do. And it certainly doesn't mean that Louis can't be mature about this, that Louis can't take the high road and be civil rather than acting like a middle schooler in trying to get around him all of the time.

George is irrelevant. And he can continue being a dick or whatever to whoever he wants; it doesn't matter. All that matters right now is that Louis went with Harry to a coffee shop tonight, to work on a history project. And that Harry's holding his hand right now, after telling off his ex-boyfriend while buying a muffin.

So yeah, all in all, Louis's pretty happy.


	13. Chapter 13

"Louis? Louis Tomlinson?"

"Really?"

"But...but why?"

"That's not right, it can't be."

"You must've heard wrong! Look at him!"

The whispers are everywhere as Louis walks through crowds of people in the locker hall, making sure to keep his head down. Zayn's tugging him along by the arm, glaring at anyone who dares to so much as look at Louis.

"Zayn," Louis hisses under his breath, "Why are they all talking about this, about me and Harry? We're partners for a project, for fuck's sake."

"I don't know," Zayn mutters back, "But whatever the reason is, it's a damn stupid one. C'mon, keep your head up, Lou. Nothing to be ashamed of."

Louis glances up, and sees eyes everywhere; so many eyes, all on him. Every single person he walks by is looking straight at him. He ducks his head down again, focusing on the movement of his feet. Left foot forward, right foot forward, left, right.

"God, fuck, I don't understand this," he mutters again. This time, though, he doesn't get a response back. 

Louis pouts, suddenly realizing that there is a lack of warmth on his right arm, and he looks up to see that Zayn's not tugging him down the hall anymore -- Zayn's not there at all, actually. 

Louis stops in his tracks. "Zayn?"

Nothing. All he gets in response are more hushed whispers, and more intent glares. 

He takes a deep breath and continues serpentining down the hallway, and when he reaches his locker, he is pleasantly surprised. 

There, leaning on the wall of lockers next to Louis's own -- similar to that one day, when Harry walked him to class for the first time -- is Harry, bottom lip pulled into his mouth and staring at his feet. 

"Haz!" Louis calls out, and Harry looks up suddenly -- only, his eyes aren't bright and happy, and he's not wearing that signature goofy grin of his. He looks upset, and -- and kind of angry, actually. 

Louis's heart picks up, and he's suddenly gotten the feeling that there's a massive brick in his stomach, weighing him down. He slowly walks over to his locker and twists it open, glancing at Harry the whole time. "Hi?"

Harry nods in response, but doesn't say anything. 

Louis pauses for a few seconds, completely disregarding his open locker in favor of turning toward Harry and leaning against the wall of lockers himself. "Something wrong?"

Harry sighs, pushing himself off the wall and shoving his hands in his pockets. "Yeah, um." He scratches his nose. "There is, actually."

Louis swallows thickly. "Oh," he says quietly, trying to keep his voice steady and casual. "What happened?"

Harry licks his lips, and then looks Louis directly in the eye for the first time throughout this entire exchange. They're barren. "I don't -- I don't think we can. Um. I don't really...want...to do the project with you anymore."

Louis's mouth falls open. "What? How? Why?"

Harry shrugs and coughs into his hand. "People are talking, and, they're like. They're saying things, about us, that aren't true. That we're like, dating, or something. And I don't want....um. I don't think I can really...talk to you...anymore."

"But...like, it's an assigned project? So why would they be talking? And, how would you even get out of the project?"

Harry shrugs again. "I talked to Stevens yesterday, and I told him about what everyone's saying. He told me it's cool if I switch. I'm doing the project with Cara instead."

Tears prickle in Louis's eyes. "W-what? But what about her partner? Why are you doing this?"

Harry just stares at him, eyes cold and remoreseless. 

"Harry, weren't you the one who told me that it doesn't matter, that these things don't matter? That everyone's just -- that they're just stupid, when they make up shit rumors like this? W-what you said about George, and his lies...and what you're saying now...it just, none of it adds up. I don't get it."

Harry doesn't say anything.

"Is there something else? Is there something else bugging you?"

"Yeah, there's something else too."

Louis's chest expands a bit here, expands with hope. "Well, what is it?"

Harry looks uncomfortable. Louis speaks up again. "Haz, you know you can trust me, you can tell me anything. What's wrong?"

Harry sighs exasperatedly. "Okay, look. Here's what's wrong: you."

Louis thinks someone's taken a baseball bat and smashed his chest in with it.

"You just -- you think we're friends, and like, you talk to me all the time. And, I don't think it's fair to hide the truth from you. I'm...I don't want to be friends with you, Louis. You're you, and I'm me. This...this doesn't work. It doesn't, it isn't, and it won't. So. Sorry."

The thing is, though, that he doesn't look sorry at all.

Louis can't do anything but gape at him, with tears filling his eyes.

"Goodbye Louis." 

And then Harry turns on his heel and starts walking away, and something weird happens to Louis's vision -- everything goes dark, except for Harry, and then something happens to Harry and he suddenly becomes really, really bright. Like, blinding bright, and then he just becomes this giant ball of orange light and then disappears.

And then Louis looks up, and he's not in school anymore, he's looking up at a black sky, and he looks back down and he's on a boat for some reason, and it's cold and people are screaming and someone's saying "Don't let me go!" and he's holding someone's hand as they pull themselves up the side of the ship's railing and then he's spinning, he's spinning so fast.

And then he's wearing this ridiculous pair of red pants while waiting outside the door of a flat, and he's knocking and he can't understand why, and then Harry opens the door and there's this brunette girl somewhere who is happily calling his name and Harry's saying "El, it's your boyfriend!" 

And then everything's spinning again, and he's driving a car, listening to Fall Out Boy and Imagine Dragons with Harry sitting in the passenger seat and Harry says something about seeing The Script and some place called Brookside, which, what?

And then Louis's in a hospital, crying and holding Zayn's red beanie, and then he's crying some more on a couch with Harry holding onto him tight.

And then Louis's in a bookstore, opening up a piece of paper with a roughly sketched drawing of a puppy on it, a messy line scrawled beneath it: "I like puppies. We should get one. - H xxx"

And then Louis's in a university classroom, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose and writing in a small notepad while listening to a professor drone on about Shakespeare, and then he's in a coffee shop and Harry's sitting across from him and they're laughing, and Nick's an employee at the counter for some reason, which makes no sense.

After that, Louis's in a fucking library, wearing an ugly name tag. He looks down at his arms and they're covered in brightly colored ink, and when he looks up Harry's walking through the front doors, wearing a pair of glasses (???) and looking shy and adorable.

The world spins again, Louis wearing a long black robe now (????) -- and is he at fucking Hogwarts, like. From Harry Potter?! He's sitting at a long table piled of food, and Zayn's glaring at Harry as he walks to another table. Harry's got on a red and gold tie, and when Louis looks down, his is green and silver.

And then Louis's on a stage, surrounded by a screaming crowd and singing into a microphone with Harry singing along with him, smiling at him with soft eyes. And Harry brushes against him ever so slightly in what feels like such a meaningful touch, but there's a man backstage who's watching them warningly with beady eyes, and Louis feels this sudden, immense hatred for him -- a sudden need to flip him off and just grab Harry and kiss him right there, in front of the massive crowd cheering for them.

And then the world spins one last time, and Louis sits up in bed with a gasp, trembling and clenching his covers tight.

He clenches his eyes shut and wills for his breathing to slow down, wiping the sweat off his forehead. 

What was that?

He sits there, panting, for a little while, before his scrambled thoughts come together. He digs for his phone, which is charging on his bedside table, and checks the time. 3 AM.

He groans quietly, covering his face with his hands. 

Okay. It was just a dream. Or, dreams. A very weird series of dreams, in all of these weird places, starring him and Harry.

Well, not all weird places. One of them was real, one of them was the world they live in. It was Harry telling him to stay away from him, it was everyone talking shit about him for being friends with Harry.

He's shaking again. Is this what's happening? Is everyone judging him for being friends with Harry?

He shoots Zayn a quick text.

awake?

He waits for fifteen minutes, and doesn't get a response. Alright, he'll take that as a no then. Wasn't expecting Zayn to be awake anyway. That boy will never not take every second of sleep that he can possibly get.

Louis lays back on his pillow, curling up into a ball and swallowing thickly. It was just a dream. Harry doesn't hate him, nothing that dream-Harry said was true. 

Was it?

****

"It was fucking weird, Zayn, seriously!"

Zayn's laughing at him as they arrive at the school parking lot, Zayn pulling into an available spot while Louis pouts and decidedly does not look at Zayn.

"Were you, like, high before you went to bed? Honestly, Louis, that's the stupidest fucking thing I've ever heard."

"Wasn't stupid, it was scary." Louis's still pouting.

Zayn's giggles die out as they walk up the stairs of the front of the school, heading towards the locker hall. Louis swallows thickly. "Zayn, I don't think I have to go to my locker right now."

Zayn shrugs. "Okay, come with me to mine, at least."

Louis's breath hitches, and he shakes his head. "I think I'm good, really. It's fine."

Zayn raises his eyebrows at him. "Is this about the dream?"

Louis widens his eyes in response. 

"Look, Lou, no one's going to be whispering things and staring at you. No one gives a shit who anyone's friends with, honestly. If you wanna be friends with Harry, no one will care. If you wanna date Harry, well, people will care and talk shit obviously -- but that's what happens with every relationship. There are always people who talk and there are always people who will criticize when any two people start dating, but ultimately, that doesn't fucking matter. All that matters is how you two feel about each other. Plus, in any case, I'm fairly certain that the entire school wouldn't hate you if you two got together. Not even close."

Louis's still frozen, unable to respond even to Zayn's mini schpiel. 

Zayn exhales loudly and grabs Louis's arm, tugging him along, and Louis feels some serious deja vu coming on. "Zayn, this is what you were doing in my dream too, you were pulling at my arm!"

Zayn just pulls harder. "It was a fucking dream. Stop being a child."

They make it all the way to the locker hall, and Louis holds his breath.

Clumps of friends are walking past each other, but no one spares Louis or Zayn a passing glance. No whispering, no glaring. Louis lets out a tiny breath of relief. Zayn loosens his grip on Louis's arm. "See? Told you."

Louis laughs shakily. "Yeah, guess I was just being stupid. You were right."

But then Louis looks up, and. Well. Fuck.

Standing there, opposite him, is Harry -- and he's leaning against the wall of lockers right by Louis's locker, just like in Louis' dream. He's on his phone though, typing rapidly.

"Zayn Zayn Zayn fuck, Zayn he's waiting for me by my locker, just like in the fucking dream Zayn what the fuck am I supposed to do?!"

"You're gonna go talk to him is what you're going to do. Chill. The dream wasn't real, remember? You'll be fine."

Louis steels himself and nods. "O-okay. Yeah. I'll be fine."

Zayn nods encouragingly. "Atta boy. Now go get him." He gives Louis a light push and moves on to go to his own locker with a discreet thumbs up, and Louis takes a deep breath. Okay. It's go time. 

He makes his way over to his locker, and calls out to Harry. "Haz!"

The next few seconds happen in slow-motion. Louis's holding his breath, Harry's head is slowly tilting up to look at Louis, and Louis's heart is thudding in his chest. 

He's so scared, expecting to see cold, dark eyes and an angry set to Harry's mouth. 

But what he sees are two bright green eyes, and lips that slowly part into a wide, shiny smile. "Louis! Hi!" Harry calls back happily, and Louis exhales, barely just keeping himself from laughing out loud at his own stupidity. 

Everything's fine.

****

Harry links his index finger with Louis's during history class that morning, when they've finished taking notes and have some free time to do a worksheet or something. 

(Usually Louis and Niall spend their free time in history talking and joking around -- but today, as soon as Niall made to stand up, Louis gave him a look and discreetly motioned towards Harry. Niall rolled his eyes and sank back into his seat with a sigh, pulling his earbuds out of his pocket and plugging them into his phone.)

Louis's breath hitches, Harry gives him a secret smile, and Louis's fairly certain he's red as a tomato. 

He talks to Louis, voice soft and sweet, moving his hand so that it's covering Louis's own. The pressure is warm and safe and nice, and Louis's going to explode.

The very best part, though, is when Cara doesn't take her eyes off of their touching hands until the class is over. And when the bell rings, she rushes out of the room instead of waiting to walk with Harry, like she always does. 

A smugness overtakes Louis, and warmth pools in his stomach as he watches Harry speak, with those bright eyes and blinding smile.

Louis's always been one to lose, in almost everything. Well, maybe not lose -- just never come in first place. He feels like he's never actually won, at anything. 

And he thinks that somehow, finally, after all of this time, he's gotten an opportunity to try to win once more. That maybe, he's got a chance. That, maybe, Harry could actually like him back. That maybe, he could actually have a shot at a real relationship -- a meaningful one.

And this time, he's not going to lose.


	14. Chapter 14

you got time tonight? let's try and finish up the project :) 

Louis's heart picks up as he reads the text Harry sent him, for a few reasons -- good and bad.

One: he's going to get to hang out with Harry tonight.

Two: once they finish the project, they won't have to meet up outside of school anymore. And if they don't have to meet up outside of school anymore, they probably won't continue hanging out and stuff. And they'll go back to just being classroom friends, and they won't get anywhere.

Louis sighs as he types back a quick response, saying he's free, and bites his lip. He enjoyed it while it lasted. And, who knows, maybe he'll be able to make up some excuse to work on homework with Harry at the coffee shop for some other class or something. He'll figure something out.

great! you hungry? we can stop by somewhere and have some dinner before goin to the coffee shop, if you want

Louis's heart is stuck in his throat as he types a response with shaky fingers. 

for sure, im always up for food :) time?

hmm...15 minutes?

perfect, see you then :) 

:) :) :) x

Louis can't stop smiling, he just can't do it. He tugs off his sweats and pulls on some jeans, smiling like a crazy person the entire time. He's going to go get dinner with Harry. Not, like, for a date or anything. But. Still. Wow. 

He hops down the stairs, skittering into the kitchen and nearly crashing straight into his mom. She gasps, nearly dropping the cup of coffee she's holding, and Louis laughs. "Sorry! Just wanted to tell you that I'm meeting up with Harry to finish up our history project in like, ten minutes or so."

She raises an eyebrow at him. "Alright, that's fine with me, just be back before ten. I don't want anything funny going on, you hear me?" She's wagging her finger in his face, and he can feel his cheeks reddening. 

"Nothing's going to happen, I swear. We're...we're just friends."

She just laughs and shakes her head. "The way you talk about him, sweetheart, makes me think that you're not just friends."

Louis (wisely) chooses not to respond to that, and instead goes to grab a glass of water as his mother's walking out the kitchen door into the living room. The second he drains the glass, his phone buzzes in his pocket. Louis's face heats up again. 

He checks his phone and sees that Harry's here and is telling him to come outside, and Louis's heart starts going into overtime. He sets his glass down in the sink and bounds out of the kitchen, pressing a quick kiss to his mom's cheek before leaving. 

As he's walking down the path, he shoves his hands in his pockets, shivering slightly at the cool air that runs straight through his thin t-shirt. He looks up to see where Harry parked, and then his legs go numb, and he thinks he might fall over. 

Harry's standing there, leaning against his car, beaming at Louis with a bouquet of orchids in his hand. HIs hair is pushed up the way Louis likes it, and he's wearing a flannel that's unbuttoned halfway, so that the golden glory of his chest is on full display. 

That's not what really gets to Louis, though. 

What makes Louis seriously consider that this entire thing is a dream is the huge sign taped to the side of Harry's car. 

LOUIS! GO TO WINTER FORMAL WITH ME?

It's written in large block letters, with tiny snowflakes painted on here and there and all sorts of swirls and designs.

Louis can't breathe. Is...he's...what? He's, like, asking him to. To go to...formal? With him?

Going to formal with Harry Styles? Him? Louis?

"Hi Louis," Harry says in his deep, rumbling voice, and Louis's skin is red all over. "Um. Do you....do you want to - ? Um." Harry's gesturing toward the sign, smiling sheepishly. "Um. I guess my question is self explanatory, actually, never mind."

Louis looks carefully at the sign, eyeing the intricate patterns within the letters and between the lines and his chest feels like it's about to burst, because that's so clearly Zayn's work -- everyone at school is well aware of Zayn's artistic abilities and of his unique style, and Louis definitely knows that no one else can do that sort of art with spray paint (or any paint, actually) -- and wait, Zayn didn't tell him this was happening? What?

And oh god, Harry actually went out of his way to contact Zayn, to make a sign, so that Harry could fucking ask Louis to winter formal? What?

Louis can't really think of anything to say. He's just standing there, staring at the stupid car and the stupid sign and the stupid flowers and the stupid Harry just leaning there and smiling like a little piece of shit, and Louis's just lost. 

After a grossly extended period of time in which Louis does nothing but gape like a fucking fish, Harry pushes off the car, walking toward Louis. He extends the bouquet to him. "These are for you," he says quietly, voice soft and eyes sparkling. 

Louis takes them, just staring down at them for a little while, before looking back up at Harry. "Is this a joke? You asking me, I mean." he suddenly blurts out, because that's all that's going through his head and he feels so ridiculous asking, but he has to know.

Harry just laughs. "No, it's no joke. I, um." The air between them heats up then, and Louis thinks he can see a tinge of pink appearing in Harry's cheeks. "I really want you to be my date, to winter formal."

Louis just gapes at him. "Actually?"

Harry nods, and Louis swallows thickly. "Oh."

Can't breathe can't breathe can't breathe.

"D-did Zayn do that?" Louis points to the sign, and Harry smiles again. "Yeah. I asked him, actually, about. Um. About asking you to formal. And, if you'd say yes. And he told me to do it, and when I told him I had to go make a sign first, he offered to make one for me. He looked so excited," Harry says with a chuckle, and Louis makes a mental note to kick Zayn later. 

"Are...are we going just as friends?" Louis asks hesitantly, because, might as well. Better than not asking and then worrying about it later, when it'd be weird to bring it up.

"Oh. Um." Harry fidgets. "No, that wasn't...that wasn't my intention. Unless - unless you'd like to go as friends. In which case, it doesn't have to be like, a date-thing. Either way, I don't mind." Louis doesn't think he's ever heard Harry talk so fast in his life.

"Oh my gosh, um. Wow. This...wow," is all Louis can say in response, and he wants to facepalm, because wow, how articulate of him.

After a bit of silence, Harry speaks up again. "So...what do you say?" Harry asks almost timidly, and oops, Louis sort of forgot to answer, didn't he?

"Oh, right! Um. Yes. I'd..I'd really like to go with you, as in. Like. On a date. And not just friends," Louis says, voice all quiet and small and he sounds so weak and ugh Louis, why are you such a wuss?

Harry's answering smile, though, makes him completely disregard his own awkward tendencies. He just looks so happy, and wow is this actually happening right now? 

Harry just asked him to formal. Fuck. 

"Thank god," Harry mutters quietly, and he takes Louis's hand and this feels so fucking intimate and coupley and it's happening in front of Louis' fucking house for fuck's sake, and then Harry leans forward and presses a soft kiss to Louis's cheek and oh wait, what's that? What's that noise? Oh, right, it's just Louis's insides spontaneously combusting, no big deal.

Harry's cheeks are rosy when he pulls back and he looks so pleased with himself and Louis is blushing like absolute mad, and Harry laughs. "You're really cute when you blush," he says so quietly that it's almost a whisper, and of course that brings on another whole round of blushing and fuck, Louis's so embarrassing.

"So, how about that dinner?" Harry continues with that quiet voice of his, and all Louis can do is nod, and he then follows Harry toward the car. "Wait, Haz?" Louis says, and Harry looks up at him earnestly. "Yeah?"

"Aren't you gonna want to take this sign off? You won't want to drive around everywhere with it."

Harry just grins in response. "I do want to drive around with it, actually. That way, everyone will know that you're the one I asked."

This has definitely got to be a dream.

****

"ZAYN MALIK!" Louis screams into the phone before Zayn can so much as say "hello," and all Zayn does in response is laugh. "I take it he asked you then?"

"YES HE FUCKING DID, YOU SHIT. AND YOU -- " Louis points at the air here, even though he knows full well that Zayn can't see his actions through the phone -- "WERE INVOLVED! AND YOU. DIDN'T. FUCKING. TELL. ME."

"Well. Yeah. That'd ruin the surprise."

"YOU SHOULD'VE TOLD ME."

"No."

"YES."

"You're dumb."

"UGH."

Louis just lays there, on his bed, in silence for a bit, holding the phone up to his ear but not saying anything. Zayn doesn't say anything either, and it's just quiet as they wait for a minute or so.

Then, Louis sighs. "But, um. Thank you. A lot."

Louis can hear the smile in Zayn's voice when he responds. "Anytime, Lou. Anytime."

****

"So what's this I hear about you and Styles?" 

"Sorry?"

Louis's talking to Chad during their morning break at school, and Louis's pretty sure that he visibly blushes upon hearing Harry's name. 

"I don't know, I've heard, like. Things. About you and Harry Styles."

"Oh really?" Louis says in an attempt to sound nonchalant, adjusting the textbook he's carrying in his arms, "Like what?"

"Like...well. Like, that you two are dating, or something."

Louis freezes, only able to say a brief "Oh," because he doesn't even know the answer to that himself.

He doesn't think they're dating. Like, Harry's his date for the dance next weekend, but they're not like together.

Right?

"Well? Are you guys dating, or?" Chad's mouth is a hard line -- he's clearly upset with him.

Louis doesn't like having people mad at him. He just wants everyone to be happy, all the time. Is that too much to ask?

Looking at Chad's hardened features and disappointed eyes, Louis thinks that, well. Yeah. It's probably a bit much to ask. 

Just then, Louis feels an arm circle around his waist, firm and warm, and Louis finds himself leaning into the touch instinctively. "Hey Lou," Harry's voice rumbles quietly, and Louis looks up at him, unable to contain his own smile. "Hey," he says softly, and Chad scoffs. "I'll take that as a yes then."

Harry furrows his eyebrows at Chad, looking confused. "You'll take what as a yes?"

Louis's eyes nearly pop out of his head, and he tries to interrupt Chad from answering Harry's question but he's a bit too late. 

"I was just asking Louis here if you two were dating."

"Hm," Harry says thoughtfully, and Louis wants the ground to open up and swallow him whole right then and there. "What do you think, Lou? Are we together?"

Louis stares at the concrete beneath his feet, willing it to make him disappear. It doesn't work. "Um. Well, it depends on what you think, Harry."

"Would you like to date me, Louis?"

Louis looks up at Harry now, and sees the light in Harry's eyes dancing playfully. "Is this you asking me out?" Louis asks in a jokingly accusing way, and Harry's smile just widens. "I mean, technically, I asked you out last night. But, for Chad's sake here, let's clear it up and make it official. What do you say?" Chad scowls. 

"Hm." Louis pretends to think about it. "Would this be a one-time date thing, or would we be dating regularly?"

Harry's smiling so wide that Louis thinks his face might split in half, and that makes Louis's tummy feel all warm because he's causing that smile. "Oh, well, I don't know about you, but I'd like for it to be a regular thing. An exclusively regular thing," Harry throws in at the end, shooting Chad a not-so-coincidental look. Chad crosses his arms and wrinkles his nose, and Louis feels bad.

"So we're talking boyfriend status?" Louis says despite the guilt niggling at the pit of his stomach.

"I mean. Well. Yeah."

Louis's nose scrunches up in his effort to not grin like a fool. "Well, in that case, I say yes."

Harry's eyes crinkle up in the corners with the force of his answering smile, dimple punching a dent in his left cheek. "Perfect, boyfriend. I think you're wonderful, boyfriend."

Louis laughs and swats him playfully. "Don't be obnoxious, Haz, I don't think people would appreciate it."

"Nah, I think I'll be as obnoxious as I want, Louis," Harry says, leaning down closer to Louis's face. Louis's heart is thudding in his chest, thudding so loud that Louis can't really hear much else. "Oh, well in that case, I think I'm going to have to retract my 'yes' and make my answer to your question a no, Harry. I don't date obnoxious people," Louis says jokingly, standing on his tiptoes to get even closer to Harry's face so that their noses are almost touching, and Harry tightens his arm around Louis's waist. (He honestly doesn't mean to go along with this slightly cruel, possessive little show Harry's putting on, but it all happens instinctively. His body can't say no to Harry, can't say no at all.) 

"Alright, um. I'll just go then. That more than answered my question. Bye Louis," Chad practically spits, shooting Harry an angry stare before stalking off. Harry looks smug. 

"You're positively awful," Louis says, pulling back from Harry and nudging his waist. 

Harry just shrugs, looking so pleased with himself that Louis can't really bring himself to be more than a little upset. 

And then the bell rings, and Harry starts walking Louis to class, their arms brushing close the whole way there.

And Louis can't help but think that this has definitely, definitely been the weirdest and least (but also most?) romantic way anyone's asked someone to be their boyfriend ever -- at school, with witnesses, in such a public and open way.

But he loves it.

****

In Spanish, they get an entire period of free time. Harry gets out of his desk immediately and makes for Louis's. He sits on top of the table part of the desk while Louis's still sitting in the desk chair, and Louis brings his hands up to lightly brush over one of Harry's. Harry widens his fingers on the tabletop, and Louis gently traces over each of them, one by one. 

Harry leans down towards Louis's ear -- which looks really strange, given his overly large limbs and the way he has to twist himself to the side to reach Louis's ear -- and whispers, "You look really good right now."

Louis swallows thickly, and then Harry's sitting up straight again, looking down at Louis with an innocent smile on his face that has a barely-there trace of smugness in it. Harry plays with a strand of Louis's hair and looks so disgustingly, wonderfully, beautifully happy.

Louis wonders if that's what he looks like as well. 

Meanwhile, Josh is gaping at the two of them from across the room, and Louis's cheeks are getting warmer and warmer because he just knows that so many people are watching the two of them right now and what is he supposed to do? 

He's now somehow strangely dating the Harry Styles -- the very same Harry Styles that Louis's been daydreaming over for months now. This is crazy, this is -- this is impossible. Because, like, it's Louis. And he's Harry. And they run in such different circles, and it's all just so weird, but it's all so perfect at the same time. This can't be happening, this can't be real -- this is exactly what he's been wanting for so long, and it just seems too good to be real life.

And another crazy thing, is that Louis knows that he acts sort of weird a lot of the time, in the sense that he acts like he doesn't really give a shit about anything. But Harry's just singlehandedly gone and done away with all of that. Harry's made it so difficult for Louis to hide his emotions, the way he'd gotten used to doing. Harry makes him the happiest he's been in a long time -- and he's been making Louis this happy since the day he started talking to him all those weeks ago. Harry makes him feel gooey and weak-kneed and mushy and stupid, really. It's unfair. 

And now, when Louis blushes and looks down at his hands in his lap, he can see his skin glowing, glowing bright the way Harry does. 

And he's positive, now, that Harry's gold has rubbed off on him, in the best and most perfect way possible. He doesn't have to want Harry's gold anymore, because he's got it now -- all of it.

Then Harry's saying something, and Louis has a really hard time concentrating on what he's saying because all he can focus on are Harry's lips and the way they're moving and the way he wants them on his own -- and then his heart swells because he can now, he can kiss him.

And then he freezes, because shit, they haven't had their first kiss yet, and that's probably going to happen at some point isn't it? Because, like, that's sort of something that boyfriends do.

Shit.

What if Harry thinks he's a bad kisser? What if Harry kisses him and then never wants to kiss him again, because Louis's just that bad at kissing? Because it's been a while, since the last person he kissed (George), so he doesn't know if he's lost his touch. He probably has. Shit. 

The bell rings, and Harry hops off of Louis's desk, smiling at him brightly. "Do you need a ride home, Lou?"

"Um." Zayn usually drives him to and from school, but he thinks that Zayn can handle a day without him. "Yeah, a ride would be good, thanks." Harry just smiles in response and goes to get his backpack and books. Louis uses the time that he's gone to shoot a quick text to Zayn.

getting a ride home from haz, don't wait up ;) 

He gets a response almost instantly. 

okay, use condoms :) 

Louis scoffs, feeling himself blush yet again as he decides to not even respond to that, pocketing the phone instead.

As he and Harry are walking to the student parking lot, Louis's phone buzzes yet again, and he pulls it out to see that he's got a text from Niall.

you and styles are DATING now?!

Louis laughs, unable to help it. 

wow, news travels fast doesn't it

damn it louis, why don't you tell me things

i tell you things all the time

LIES

noooo. this just happened today anyways, i haven't even had time to let it sink in myself

whatever. just make sure he's good to you, yeah? don't want to hafta beat someone up or anythin

Louis feels a fondness for Niall swell up in his chest. Good old Niall. He can always count on him.

don't worry ni. thanks x

course xxx

Harry nudges him lightly. "What are you smiling about?"

Louis pockets his phone. "Nothing, just talking to Niall."

Harry nods, smile fading from his face as he bites his lip. It gets oddly quiet then, and Louis brushes his fingers against Harry's because he wants to see him smile again. 

It works.

****

"Thanks for the ride," Louis says quietly as soon as Harry comes to a stop in front of Louis's house. Louis's lingering in the car, though, because he wants to kiss him but he's scared to kiss him and he doesn't know what to do.

Harry smiles at him, leaning forward a little. "Yeah, of course Lou."

Louis reaches over to thumb over Harry's fingers, loving the way Harry's hand feels in his own. "Did you want to come in?"

Harry presses his lips together. "I'd love to, but I have practice in like, fifteen minutes."

"So. You just gave me a ride home, but you're going to have to drive back to school like. Right now?"

"...Yeah? Is that bad?"

Oh goodness, this boy. 

"No Haz, not at all! It's just, I feel bad now, I could've gotten a ride with Zayn instead of taking up your time. I didn't mean to inconvenience you or anything."

Harry smiles fondly. "Don't be stupid, Louis. I want to spend time with you. I offered anyway, and if I hadn't wanted to drive you home, I wouldn't have asked." He leans forward a little more, and Louis hopes his face isn't too red at the moment.

Louis purses his lips. "Okay. I'm still sad you can't come in though." He pouts a bit more, glance flickering towards Harry's smiling lips and back up to his eyes. Harry laughs and squeezes Louis's hand. "I'm free tomorrow," he says quietly, and Louis smiles a bit. "Perfect. It's a date then."

Louis's giddy when Harry's cheeks flush as soon as the words leave Louis's lips, and he mentally pats himself on the back. He can be well charming sometimes. 

(When he's not trying to be, that is.) 

"It's a date," Harry says quietly back, leaning forward even more, and then Louis leans forward a little more, and they're so close to each other that Louis's close to going cross-eyed in his effort to keep his eyes trained on Harry's face. (Yes, that's a bit of an exaggeration. No, Louis isn't freaking out or trying to distract himself from his nerves by creating odd analogies. Or was it a metaphor? Hyperbole? He doesn't know what the appropriate term is here.)

They pause there for a second, the only sounds being the blood flowing in Louis's ears and the painfully loud thud of Louis's heartbeat, and the soft crooning of Dan Smith's voice on the car radio. 

And then Harry closes the distance between them and presses his lips lightly to Louis's, and Louis's stomach bottoms out and his heart is pounding so fast and he forgets to close his eyes altogether but it doesn't matter because it's so nice. Harry's lips are soft yet somehow sort of rough at the same time and he really likes the way their noses brush together, but then it's over too fast and Harry's pulling back with a more-than-pleased look on his face. 

"Um," is all Louis can say for a second, before he remembers that he should probably be getting out of the car now because Harry needs to go and wow, they just kissed holy shit. 

He scrambles to grab his backpack, and turns to Harry quickly before opening the door. "Thanks again for the ride, Haz. I'll see you." He climbs out of the car and slams the door shut, and Harry's grinning at him through the open window. "Anytime, Louis," he says, before peeling out onto the street, and driving away. 

Once he knows that Harry's far enough away that he can't see or hear him, Louis lets out an embarrassing squeal and does a little happy dance before going inside. He pulls out his phone and opens up his conversation with Zayn. 

hi :)

hi?

:) 

you kissed didn't you

:) :) :) 

bye

Louis laughs, tossing his backpack onto the floor and diving onto the couch. He's smiling like an idiot into the cushions and his heart is still pounding from the kiss.

Everything today happened so fast that it all feels like a blur, but somehow, Louis can still remember every single second, every single detail, clearer than day. 

And he's really, definitely, very happy.


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> finally updated! x

Saturday morning rolls around, and Louis is woken by a heavy weight on his back.

"Ugh," Louis groans, breathless. "The hell? Who's -- "

"Louis, it's time to get up."

"Zayn, are you fucking sitting on me?"

"Get. Up."

"The fuck are you doing fucking sitting on me? It's Saturday morning, why the fuck are you here?"

"Your mom let me in."

Louis rolls his eyes into his pillow. Zayn presses down further on his back.

"Fuck, Z, you're killing my shoulders, get off."

"Not until you get up."

"How am I supposed to get up if you're crushing my body?"

Louis hears Zayn sigh as he pushes himself off of Louis, and yes, Louis can breathe again. 

He slowly rolls over onto his side, squinting as his eyes adjust to the light. "Why are you in my house? We didn't have plans to hang out, did we?"

"Nah. I just thought you could use some help, is all."

"Help? Help with what?"

Zayn's eyebrows pop up. "The dance?..."

Louis stares at him blankly.

"The dance that you're going to with Harry?..." Zayn says, eyebrows climbing higher and higher with every word.

Louis yawns. "I don't know what you're going on about, man. Formal isn't until next weekend, I've got loads of time."

Zayn huffs. "Louis are you kidding me? Winter formal is tonight."

Louis sits bolt upright. "Holy shit, fuck -- that's tonight?!"

"Did you actually forget? Don't tell me you forgot."

"Well, I was kind of attacked in my bed by my best friend on a Saturday morning, so, I think I'm justified in forgetting a few things."

"This isn't just another thing, Louis. Damn it, how the fuck could you forget about Harry? He’s your boyfriend, you dick.”

"I don't -- I don't know Zayn, I don't know! Holy fuck, I'm -- I'm going to winter formal with Harry Styles tonight!"

"Exactly. And that's why I'm here -- to help you get ready and make sure you're dressed proper and everything."

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Zayn rolls his eyes once more. “It means that I’m being a good friend, you dolt. Now let’s go grab some breakfast. I’m in the mood for omelettes.”

“I – “

“No excuses, get up.”

“No, I – “

Louis stops talking when Zayn sends him one of the most threatening glares he’s ever seen.

He sighs, standing up and stretching. “Alright, I guess we're getting omelettes then.”

****

“Remind me why I’m doing this again?”

“Mental preparation, Louis. We can’t have you going haywire during your date, now can we?”

Louis rolls his eyes, and it makes his head hurt. “Zayn, I’ve been out with him a few times. I’m not going to ‘go haywire.’ Who even says haywire anymore, anyways?”

Zayn ignores the snub, and he may have rolled his eyes but Louis can’t exactly tell.

Because Louis’s currently hanging off the edge of his bed, upside down.

Louis sighs. “Zayn, this is bullshit. All it’s doing is making me dizzy. I don’t see how this is mental preparation.”

“I’ve read about it, in like, mediation books and stuff. Being upside down balances out your core, and clears up your system. It’s like, cleaning. You’ll feel so much better afterwards.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“Well, you should. Because it helps.”

“I’m pretty sure it won’t.”

“It will.”

“No.”

“Yes.”

“No.”

Before Zayn can answer back, though, Louis’s phone rings. Louis grabs it from where it's sitting on his stomach without sitting up to look, so as not to interrupt his "cleaning" process (or whatever the fuck Zayn calls it), and holds the phone up to his ear -- a bit of a challenge while upside-down, actually, because he almost drops it a few times. “Hello?”

“Louis!” Niall says loudly, and Louis cringes at the volume. “Hey Niall, what’s up?”

“Nothing much, just checking in, making sure you’re not bailing out on tonight. Demi and I are excited to hang out with you. And, erm, and Styles too, I guess.”

Louis grins. “You guess?” he mocks, and he hears Niall huff. “Yeah, I guess. I mean, I don’t know him too well, so. I don’t know.”

“Hey now, there's no need to be awkward about it. He’s a great guy, you’ll like him.”

“….”

Louis laughs. “Don’t be skeptical, babe. He’s nothing like George, I promise.”

“We’ll see about that.”

Niall’s doubt makes Louis feel light-headed -- or, maybe it’s the fact that he’s still upside-down -- because, didn't Niall say he liked Harry a few days ago? Or last week? At some point?

He sits up slowly, grabbing onto one of the bars on the headboard to steady himself. “Alright, well, I’ll talk to you later, yeah? Zayn’s over and he’s being an idiot.”

Zayn glares at him, and Louis sticks his tongue out.

“Alright Lou, see you soon,” Niall says, before hanging up. Louis sighs, pulling the phone away from his ear and staring it for a bit before tossing it onto the bed.

Zayn just eyes him curiously, as if to ask what’s wrong. Louis shakes his head, and stands up. “Okay Zayn, I’m ‘mentally prepared.’ Now what?”

Zayn grins. “Now, the fun part,” he says, and with that, he grabs a very confused Louis’s hand and tugs him to the bathroom.

****

Louis emerges from the bathroom an hour or so later, wobbling out of a cloud of swirling hair spray and hot blow-dryer air. He coughs a few times, rubbing his eyes. “You’re fucking insane,” he says between coughs, and Zayn just grins widely, walking around Louis in a circle and looking him up and down. He nods approvingly. “You look hot. I’ve done good.”

Louis wrinkles his nose. He doesn’t feel hot. He feels like he’s going to explode from all of the toxic materials he’s just inhaled.

“Don’t move like that!” Zayn suddenly exclaims, and Louis jumps. “What?!” Louis says, his eyes wide. “What’d I do?!”

Zayn sighs and steps forward, adjusting a strand of Louis’s hair. “You’re going to mess up your hair, I spent ages on it!”

Louis snorts and walks away from Zayn, to stand in front of the wall-to-wall mirrored doors of his closet. He has to blink a couple of times when he sees his reflection, though, because woah -- is that actually him?

His hair is styled into a sort of wave in the front, and is tousled around the sides. Every tendril looks perfect – each one half straight and half curled – in a way that looks effortless. The part at the very tip, the center of his forehead, is sitting in one large messy curl, dipping down onto his forehead a bit. If Louis had known Zayn was going to do this, he’d have been a bit skeptical at first (because, one huge curl? How the fuck would that in any way look good?) but looking at himself now, he’s got to admit that Zayn’s done a pretty good job.

(Not that he’s going to tell him that, of course. No need to inflate his already-massive ego.)

(Or, maybe he might, because Zayn seems really proud of himself and really happy, which is nice, because Zayn's usually indifferent about everything.)

(Okay, fine, he will.)

“Wow, um. Just. Wow. Thanks, Z.”

Zayn’s smile gets wider, an affectionate gleam in his eyes. “No problem babe. I'm glad you like it.”

Louis supposes that he's got some pretty fantastic friends.

****

So, Louis is dating Harry. That’s nothing new.

Well, actually it is, because they only just got together pretty recently. But that’s not the point.

The point is, Louis had assumed that Harry’s days of blindsiding him were over.

He was wrong.

As Zayn is in the midst of choosing a tie for Louis – one that will compliment Harry’s tie (which Harry sent Louis a picture of) but nothing too matchy – the doorbell rings.

“Z, can you get that? My mom and sisters aren’t home, and I’m kind of not wearing pants.”

Which is true, Louis’s trying to button up his undershirt while in only his briefs.

Zayn sighs, tossing the ties he’d been holding onto the bed and pushing his way out the door.

Louis hears Zayn’s footsteps thudding down the stairs, and the door opening, before there’s complete silence. He pauses in his shirt-buttoning, curious.

He hears someone saying something in a quiet voice, and then Zayn is saying “Louis?” timidly from the ground floor.

Louis, confused, pokes his head out the door. “What, Z? I’m kind of busy!”

Zayn doesn’t respond, and Louis scoffs and goes back into his room, continuing to button up his shirt.

Louis is so focused on trying to get his clothing on that he doesn’t hear the two pairs of footsteps making their way up the stairs, nor does he hear the door slowly creak open. “Who was that, Zayn?” Louis asks without looking up, and then Zayn clears his throat.

When Louis looks up, he nearly has a heart attack.

Because Harry’s standing there, next to Zayn, holding a boutonniere. He's wearing a full-on suit and everything, shiny blue tie tucked into his suit jacket and hair styled up out of his eyes. Louis forgets how to speak (and think) for a moment, because Harry looks positively stunning. He’s blushing too, and for a moment, Louis wonders why on earth Harry would be blushing -- but then Louis looks down and sees that he's wearing really tight underwear -- like, the you-can-see-everything-underneath level of tight -- and with a bit of a delayed reaction, his body springs to life again.

Louis jumps, and goes to cover himself up, holding his dress pants in front of him. “Harry! You’re early!”

Zayn looks like he doesn’t know whether to laugh or not, so he settles for just leaving instead, giving Louis a small nod before he goes.

“Um,” Harry says slowly, averting his eyes. “Fuck -- I mean, shit – I mean – fuck. I’m sorry Louis, I didn’t mean to – this wasn’t my – fuck.”

Louis swallows thickly, unable to move a centimeter. “It’s okay, um. Do you want to – do you want to maybe step outside, wait in the living room with Zayn for a quick minute?”

“Uh, yeah, I probably – probably should. I just had something important I had to tell you, um. That’s why I’m early.”

“Okay, just, give me five minutes, yeah?”

Harry nods rapidly, face redder than ever, before backing out of the room, shutting the door behind him.

Once Louis hears Harry’s footsteps fade away, he sighs, feeling his own face heat up. He quickly tugs on some pajama pants, not caring how stupid that may look paired with a fancy shirt, before bolting out the door and heading downstairs.

Zayn and Harry are both sitting on couches in the living room, opposite each other. Harry’s plastic box containing Louis’s boutonniere is sitting on the coffee table, and neither Zayn nor Harry are speaking to each other.

When Harry hears Louis coming down the stairs, though, he stands up quickly. Louis notices that he’s still got a faint dusting of pink on his cheeks, and Louis can’t help but think again that he looks incredibly beautiful.

“Louis, I’m so sorry, I should have texted or called beforehand.”

Louis laughs embarrassedly. “Yeah, probably should have. It’s okay though, don’t worry about it. What was it that you wanted to tell me?”

“Oh, um. I just wanted to say that, in an hour or so, Nick is having a pre-party of sorts at his. It’s just for taking pictures and things, maybe grabbing a bite to eat. Parents are going too. It’s like, mainly to just have photos. I was wondering if you’d like to go with me.”

Louis’s eyes widen. Nick’s house? Nick Grimshaw?

He forces the bile in his throat to settle, because ew, Grimshaw. Fucking disgusting. But, Nick is Harry’s best friend – doesn’t Louis at least owe it to him to try?

“Um. Sure. I mean, I don’t mind. As long as Nick wouldn’t mind having me, that is.”

Harry shakes his head hurriedly, smiling at Louis sweetly. “Of course not! He’d love for you to come.”

“In that case, sounds lovely.” Louis smiles back at Harry, Harry’s eyes getting brighter as Louis walks over to him. He wraps his arms around Louis’s waist, smiling at him so happily that Louis kind of forgets to breathe for a minute.

Louis rests his hands on Harry's shoulders, mentally noting that the fabric of his suit jacket is really nice and soft, before leaning in and --

Zayn coughs loudly. Louis wants to kill him.

Harry jumps back, scratching the back of his neck and clearing his throat. His cheeks are red again, and Louis wants to pinch them because cute.

Louis glares at Zayn, and bounces forward to press a kiss to Harry’s cheek just to make a point – making Harry blush even harder and bite his lip to hold back a grin – and heads back toward the stairs. “Come along Zayn, it’s time for you to go, let’s get your stuff and get you on out of here.”

Zayn wisely does not protest, simply goes with Louis to his room. As soon as they’re inside, Louis turns on Zayn. “You piece of shit fucker! Why would you bring him into my room?! You know I wasn’t dressed!”

Zayn’s lips twitch as he fights a grin. “I didn't do it on purpose, thought you would have been smart enough to throw some pants on. Someone was at your door after all, most likely looking for a Tomlinson. Anyway, neither of you seemed to mind very much. Plus, I can’t leave, we haven’t picked out a tie for you yet,” he says quietly, amusement glimmering in his eyes.

Louis glares at him, grabs Zayn’s jacket, shoves it in his face, and spins him around and lightly pushes him out of his bedroom door.

He doesn’t let go of Zayn’s shoulders until Zayn’s completely outside of his house, at which point he gives Zayn a very forced grin. “Have a nice day,” he sing-songs, shutting the door in a smirking Zayn’s face.

When he turns back around, Harry’s still standing awkwardly by the couch, smiling amusedly at Louis, and honestly how was Louis ever intimidated by him? He’s fucking adorable is what he is.

Louis bounds over to him and takes both of his hands in his, looking up into his eyes. Harry giggles and leans down, rubbing his nose against Louis’s before pressing a warm kiss to his mouth.

“Would you like to help me pick a tie?” Louis asks breathlessly after they part, purposely widening his eyes flirtily as he looks up at Harry.

Harry swallows thickly. Louis wants to laugh. “Um, I – I don’t know, because – um.”

This time, Louis does laugh. He holds onto one of Harry’s hands as he takes him up the stairs and into his bedroom, closing the door behind them.

Harry’s just kind of standing there, as if he doesn’t know what to do. He’s looking at Louis with a lost look in his eyes, and Louis has no fucking clue how he got so lucky, to be dating someone as sweet and cute and pure as Harry.

“I like your tie very much,” Louis says, running his fingers over the silky blue fabric resting on Harry's chest, and he can feel Harry’s body shiver beneath his fingertips. Louis blinks to prevent his own eyes from widening in surprise – because he’s never had this sort of effect on anyone before, this is completely new to him and he cannot believe that he’s causing Harry Styles to fucking shiver of all things – before he continues. “I don’t know which one I should wear.”

Harry, still recovering, blinks. “Hm,” he says quietly after coming to his senses, examining the ties laid out on Louis’s bed – many of which Zayn brought over, because he owns too many ties to count and Louis only has, like, two.

“I like this one,” Harry says quietly, handing Louis a silver tie with subtle, darker silver stripes running down it. “It kind of matches the silver in mine.” He points to his own light blue tie, with ultra-thin silver stripes sewed into it.

Louis smiles at him sweetly, and gives the tie back to him. “Can you tie it for me?”

Harry just stares at the tie for a bit, then looks up at Louis, some sort of strong emotion present in his gaze. He silently wraps the tie around Louis’s neck and starts tying it, standing far closer to Louis than necessary but hell if Louis’s complaining. He bites down on his lip as he concentrates on looping the tie correctly, occasionally looking up into Louis’s eyes and smiling.

He’s breathtaking.

Once he’s finished tying the tie, he grabs Louis’s suit jacket and slips it through his arms, adjusting his tie and shirt.

He takes a step back, looking Louis up and down, that strong emotion back in his eyes. He doesn’t say anything though, so Louis speaks up to break the silence. “Well? How do I look?” He does a little spin with a hand on his hip, posing fabulously at the end. He should model.

(Ha but not actually because who is he kidding. Especially not when he's wearing pajama pants with a suit jacket and tie.)

Then before he can realize what’s happening, Harry’s hands are on his waist and Harry’s lips are moving against his and Louis’s fairly powerless to stop it, really (not that he'd want to, because honestly), so he just kisses Harry back.

The kiss becomes heated quickly, Harry pulling away once to nose at Louis jaw and press small kisses down it. “You look gorgeous,” he mutters, and Louis lets out a shaky breath. He doesn’t know what to focus on – Harry’s lips on his jaw or Harry’s fucking compliments.

He tugs Harry’s lips back to his, and they kiss for a few minutes before Louis pulls back. “Don’t we have to get to Nick’s at some point?”

Harry looks down at Louis with dark eyes. “I doubt he’ll care if we’re late,” he mutters huskily before leaning in again, and fuck that voice, and fuck, Harry.

Needless to say, they don’t end up leaving for quite a while.

****

“Harry, you’re late,” Nick says accusingly the second he opens his door, and Harry just smiles at him sheepishly. “Sorry?”

Nick surveys both Harry’s and Louis’s flushed cheeks and slightly rumpled clothing – Louis told Harry that they shouldn’t make out in the car while they’re parked right in front of Nick’s fucking house for fuck’s sake, but did Harry listen? No. (But did Louis actually want him to listen, is the question? Ha.) – with narrowed eyes, before giving them a curt “Come in.” He pivots and just walks away, leaving the door open without even acknowledging Louis.

Louis, suddenly nervous, raises his eyebrows at Harry. Harry shakes his head, grabbing Louis's hand. “Nick’s kind of weird sometimes. It’s okay.”

Louis takes a deep breath. “If you say so.”

Once they walk in, they see clumps of people milling about the living room, talking to each other and eating. Girls are waving to each other and flirting with their dates, guys are laughing and talking, and Louis feels very out of place.

These aren’t his people. He doesn’t know these people. He’s not like them, he’s – he’s on a completely different social level. And he doesn’t belong here.

Harry doesn’t sense his nervousness, though, instead walking Louis to the nearest group of people. They all squeal and laugh and give him hugs in greeting, and then they see Louis, and they look confused.

Louis feels like he’s walked straight into a cheesy, cliché, cliquey high school movie.

“Friends,” Harry says in his rumbly voice, eyes shining proudly, “This is Louis, if you don’t know him. My boyfriend.”

He sounds so proud when he says it, so proud that Louis really wants to kiss him.

But at the moment, a group of five or six people are staring at Louis blankly, and Louis doesn’t quite know what to do.

So he smiles at them awkwardly, and holds up a hand. ‘”Hey,” he says quietly, and they don’t say anything back.

He glances at Harry nervously, but Harry’s still smiling at him, so he’s not much help.

Then, Drew and his date walk up, and they greet Harry before turning to Louis. “Louis! My man! You’ve done quite a job, snatching up little Harry here,” he says, ruffling Harry’s hair. “Hey!” Harry protests, pouting, “I’m not little!”

Both Drew and Louis ignore him. “Hey man,” Louis says, with a laugh, “How are you?”

Drew grins. “I’m alright, you know. Pretty good tonight actually, because I’m here with this lovely lady.” He tightens his arm around his date’s waist and smiles down at her, pecking her cheek, and she giggles, and Louis resists the urge to coo because they're so cute.

And with Drew breaking the ice, the rest of the group starts to warm up to Louis, asking him questions about him and Harry. Louis tells them cute stories about Harry, and Harry tells them cute stories about Louis and the two of them have got practically the entire room aw-ing over them in no time.

And as Harry looks at him proudly, Louis thinks he might actually be able to fit in here.


	16. Chapter 16

Nick hates him.

Louis says so much to Harry, and Harry shakes off the statement, saying that it'd be impossible for anyone to hate Louis (which is aw).

But, Louis sees how Nick is watching Harry throughout the night, so, he thinks he might have figured out why he might not be Nick's favorite person.

(He also might be a bit of a possessive fuck, because once he realizes this, he pulls Harry closer to him and barely ever leaves his side the entire time they're at Nick's.)

Finally, it's time to take pictures, so everyone starts getting their boutonnieres and corsages on. Louis's quite excited about this, because he's never quite done it before.

A really great guy named Ed takes pictures for them, of Louis pinning Harry's boutonniere on him and vice versa. Ed then proceeds to go around the entire room and show everyone Louis and Harry's pictures, and then everyone starts coming up with couple names for him and Harry, and then somehow people start tweeting things like "Larry is my otp" -- which, what?

Louis feels like he needs to pinch himself. Is this real? Harry's friends, somehow, fucking love him -- all but one, that is. This is -- this can't be actually happening. 

Harry says he's going to go talk to some people for a bit and that he'll be right back, giving Louis a peck on the cheek before he goes. Louis blushes and watches Harry walk away, frame strong and square in his suit jacket. Louis's got no idea how he managed to land himself with someone so fucking hot. 

He feels someone poke his side. "Louis!" 

Louis turns, and he can feel himself break out into a large smile. "Dani!"

Danielle smiles and wraps her arms around him, and Louis laughs. "Dani, I didn't know you were going to be here! Who's your date?"

She pulls back and blushes, motioning to the guy standing behind her, and -- and it's Liam. 

"Liam!" Louis nearly shouts, flinging himself at him, and Liam laughs, stumbling backwards. Then, a realization hits, and Louis pulls back and narrows his eyes at Liam. "You and Danielle? Since when?" he hisses, and Dani rolls her eyes. "I can hear you, you know."

"Shush." Louis wags his finger at her without looking away from Liam. "This is best -friend talk, Danielle."

Danielle's expression turns incredulous, but Louis can tell by the sparkle in her eye that she knows he's just messing around. "Alright, be that way. I'll leave you two to your 'talk' then. Liam love, I'll be back soon, yeah? I'm going to go talk to Harry for a bit and embarrass Louis."

Louis whips around to face her. "Heeeey! No!"

Danielle just winks and giggles, before spinning around and scurrying to where Harry's having an animated conversation with Drew. 

Louis shakes his head fondly, and then turns back to face Liam. "Soooo? Give me the details, Li! I can't believe you haven't told me about this!"

Liam blushes. "Well, I -- I mean, there was -- there's nothing to tell really, just. I just asked her to formal, and she said yes, and. Yeah. I mean, this is technically our first date, we haven't been out before tonight. So we'll see how it goes."

Louis grins and claps Liam on the back. "Atta boy, I'm proud of you."

Liam's blush becomes more pronounced. "Thanks Lou."

Louis then decides to change the subject, so as to put Liam out of his misery. "So, how's Andy? I haven't seen him in a while, I heard he's -- "

Louis then notices that Liam's eyes focus on something over Louis's shoulder, and he suddenly looks a bit concerned. "Woah wait -- sorry Lou -- what's happening there?"

Louis, a tad irritated at being interrupted, turns around to see what Liam's looking at.

Harry's talking to Nick now, and Nick's saying things rapidly, and he's gesturing and pointing in Louis's direction, and he looks kind of upset.

Harry raises his eyebrows at him, and says something calmly, but all that does is make Nick's face get redder with anger. 

Louis swallows thickly and turns back to Liam. "Do you think I should go over there?"

Liam furrows his eyebrows. "I have no clue. Maybe not yet, just, wait a minute or so..."

Louis nods, and starts fiddling with his fingers anxiously. He sneaks a peek back again, and all he sees is Nick furiously saying something else to Harry. He turns around again. Okay. Deep breaths. 

Shit. Louis wants to be there, to know what they're saying -- he knows they're talking about him, and he knows it can't be good. He wants Nick to say whatever he's going to say to his face, not to Harry.

He decides to walk over, going up to the two from behind in order to buy himself more time before he's (possibly) called out.

"Nick, honestly, you're making a big deal out of nothing."

"But why didn't you tell me you were dating him, is the thing! Come on Haz, seriously?"

Ouch.

"I didn't think I had to ask for your permission before dating someone," Harry says in an almost acidic tone, and Louis's heart expands -- he's defending him.

"No, that's not what I meant, Harry, I -- ugh." He groans frustratedly, and it's at this point that Louis decides to step in.

He scuttles over to Harry and wraps his arms around Harry from behind. Harry leans into his touch immediately, and Louis can see that Harry's cheek is raised, which means he's probably smiling. And that makes Louis smile. "Hi love," Louis says quietly, and Harry hums a greeting in response. Louis determinedly avoids looking at Nick, who's currently staring him down so angrily that Louis thinks smoke might start coming out of his ears any second.

"Anyway," Harry says quietly. "I'll talk to you later Nick, I think me and Louis are going to get going and meet up with some other friends. If that's okay with you, of course." Harry directs the last sentence to Louis, giving Louis a different sort of look, and Louis finds himself nodding confusedly. "Yeah, I'm fine with that."

Nick coughs. "Alright," he says in a strained voice. "Thanks for coming."

"Thanks for having us," Harry says politely and evenly, and then proceeds to take Louis's hand and lead him towards the door.

"Why are we leaving?" Louis asks in a hushed tone, and Harry shakes his head. "I just thought you'd want to meet up with Niall and Demi beforehand."

Louis gives Harry a skeptical look. "I thought we agreed we were meeting them at the dance?"

"Um." Harry's blushing now, fumbling for an excuse. "I. Uh."

"Haz." Louis stops Harry once they're outside. "What's this about?"

Harry sighs, but says nothing.

"I told you he hated me," Louis mumbles, and Harry's eyes widen with worry. "Lou, don't think that his opinion of you changes the way I feel about you at all. I don't give a shit what he thinks, because at the moment, he's being an unreasonable jerk. I really like you."

Louis allows himself to smile here, poking Harry's stomach. "You're sappy."

"I mean it, though."

"I know." Louis pauses. "Thank you."

Harry squeezes his hand in response.

****

The school rented out a few rooms in a hotel for the dance, and when Harry pulls into the parking lot, Louis can hear the thudding base of the music from inside the car.

When they walk inside, Louis's in awe. He didn't think this would be that big a deal, thought there'd be a few streamers here and there and maybe a couple of balloons -- but this has completely exceeded his expectations. 

The lights, the people, the music -- there's even a fucking bar that they set up for people to get drinks (non-alcoholic, unfortunately) when they get tired of dancing.

The first thing Louis registers after this initial shock is Harry laughing. "You've never been to a school dance before?"

Louis blinks. "No, not at all. Why'd they go so all-out for this?! I knew they did for prom and shit, but this is insane!"

Before Harry can answer, though, someone is calling Louis's name. Louis spins around to see Niall waving at him from the dance floor, and as soon as Louis waves back, Niall starts making his way over to them. He doesn't acknowledge Harry, instead walking straight up to Louis and engulfing him in a tight hug. "Unf," Louis says, voice muffled. "Niarr, geroff."

Niall laughs, letting go. "Sorry," he says sheepishly. "Demi's just gone to get something to drink, she should be back any second. How are you?"

"I'm fabulous, thanks. Just hanging out with Harry here." He gives Niall a look, trying to somehow communicate without words that he's being rude in ignoring Harry. Niall's facial expression becomes somewhat guarded, and he turns to face Harry, who looks thrown off by the entire situation.

"Hey, Harry. Don't think we've talked too much quite yet, at school and things."

Harry clears his throat. "Y-yeah, I don't think we have."

The boys lapse into silence now, and Louis isn't liking this. He's trying to think of a way to start conversation when Demi suddenly appears. "Louis! Harry!" she says happily, hugging Louis first and then Harry. She winks at Louis as she's hugging Harry, causing Louis to blush. "You two look great!"

Harry's smiling now, and it's genuine, so Louis relaxes a bit. "Thank you, so do you!"

Demi then starts an easy conversation with Harry, and once Louis's certain that Harry's distracted enough, he pulls Niall aside. He raises his eyebrows at him, wanting an explanation.

"What?" Niall says defensively, and Louis scoffs. "Ni, that was rude! You made him uncomfortable!"

Niall rolls his eyes. "It's not my fault he's being a baby. Why's he so sensitive anyways?"

Louis clenches his jaw. "Niall, I really like him. Please be nice."

"That's what you said about George too."

"Ugh!" Louis groans frustratedly. "How many times do I have to tell you that he's nothing like George?! They're polar opposites, I swear! I told you about what Harry said to George at the coffee shop, didn't I? That alone proves it!"

Niall rolls his eyes.

Louis huffs. "Can you please just give him a chance?"

Niall shrugs, not making eye contact. "Niall," Louis says forcefully, and Niall sighs. "Fine. Not promising that I'll like him though."

Louis shakes his head. "I'm not trying to make you like him, Ni. All I care about is that you at least try."

"Yeah yeah, whatever. Let's go back now, c'mon. Looks like lover boy's getting worried."

Louis turns to look toward where Demi and Harry are still standing, and sees that Demi's saying something to him and that he's nodding, but he's looking over towards where Louis and Niall are. He gives Louis a tentative smile, eyes flickering nervously toward Niall and then back. Louis feels a warm fondness seep into his belly, and he nods.

Louis smiles at Harry as they walk back over, and Harry's stiff posture relaxes. He holds an arm out, and when Louis gets to him, he slips easily into it, so that Harry's arm is around his waist. Demi pauses in whatever she's saying and squeals. "Okay, I'm done with this, you're too cute. Ni, why don't you ever do cute stuff like that with me?"

Niall rolls his eyes and pecks Demi on the cheek before putting an arm around her. "It's cool that you guys have gotten so close as a couple so quickly. You only got together, what, a few days ago?"

Louis can't tell if Niall actually thinks it's cool, or if he's just being a suspicious fuck. 

"It's been a week and a half, actually," Harry says casually, but Louis can sense an undertone of defensiveness, and he wants to facepalm. First Nick, now this. What next?

And maybe he shouldn't have thought that, because -- 

"Harry!" someone squeals in an annoyingly high-pitched voice, and Louis can't breathe, because he knows that voice. 

"Cara!" Harry responds, and she throws her arms around his shoulders. Louis snorts, because she won't so much as look at him, let alone say hi.

And shit, Niall did the same thing to Harry, didn't he? It's one thing to see it happen, but it's an entirely different thing to feel it happen to you. Oh dear. 

"You look great!" Cara says excitedly, to which Harry responds with a simple "Thanks!" (which Louis's going to pretend he's not smug about, because ha he didn't reciprocate), and then Cara finally decides to acknowledge him. 

She narrows her eyes at him in confusion. "Oh Louis! What a surprise! What are you doing here?"

Louis has to physically try not to raise his eyebrows. "Um. It's a school dance, so? Of course people are going to be here?" He hopes he didn't say that too condescendingly, but judging by Niall's poorly-hidden smirk he doesn't think he's done a good enough job.

"Yeah, I know, but. You --" She pauses contemplatively, and then shrugs. Louis clenches his jaw and thinks it's probably a good thing that she didn't continue. "Anyway!" she turns back to Harry, "Who's your date? I didn't see you two at Nick's!"

"Yeah, um," Harry coughs, "We showed up a little late. My date is Louis, actually."

Cara laughs, not even trying to hide it. Louis is on fire. "What? I thought that was like, a two day thing between you two."

Harry furrows his eyebrows. "He's my boyfriend, Cara," he says sternly. She doesn't seem to get the message, because she laughs again. "Seriously? Good one, H. You, dating people? Hooking up, whatever you've done worse," she glances at Louis here, "but dating? If you were going to date anyone I wouldn't have expected for you to choose Louis Tomlinson. Maybe Taylor, but --"

Louis's jaw drops, and he's fucking had enough. "Um. I'm right here, you know," he says much more loudly than he needed to, cutting her off.

She glances at him, and then turns back to look at Harry. Louis's jaw drops even further. Fuck this, and fuck her. The fuck is she even -- why is she even fucking here? 

"Alright then," Louis says quietly, and then Niall and Demi are looking at him with concern in their eyes. Harry, however, is too busy looking incredulously at Cara to do so. "I'll be right back, I'm going to go get something to drink. Does anyone want anything?"

Cara perks up. "Yeah, actually, could you get me a --"

"I wasn't talking to you," Louis says evenly (and he's very proud of how calm he is, given the situation), sending Cara a small, sarcastic smile, and before he can see her reaction, he turns on his heel and walks away. 

Louis's just asked the guy at the counter for a Sprite when he feels someone sidle up next to him, and he turns around thinking it's Harry -- but, of course it isn't. 

It's Chad. 

And, honestly, could this night get any more fucking complicated?

Louis didn't ask for this. All he wanted was a date with Harry, not this shit-show.

"Hi Louis," he says with a smile, and Louis tries very hard to hold back his exasperated sigh. "Hello Chad."

"Where's Harry?" Chad asks in a tone that he probably thinks is nonchalant, but Louis sees right through it. "Oh, he's somewhere over there, talking to some people."

Chad's smile grows wider at this. "He left you alone? That's rude." He scoots closer to Louis, and Louis scoots away from him. 

"Louis!" someone calls out then over the sound of the music, and Louis turns around to see that it's fucking Tom, and -- and this is too fucking much. 

"Hi Tom, um, actually, I'd love to stay and chat but I'm not feeling too well right now, so if you'll excuse me." He practically leaps off of his chair and quickly walks away before Tom can even answer, and he feels slightly bad at first, like he could've hurt Tom or Chad's feelings, but in all honesty there's too much going on at the moment for him to even pretend to be civil. 

He bumps into someone in his haste, and it ends up being Harry -- finally, something good happens -- and Harry sighs in relief. "I was just looking for you!" He grabs Louis's hand and pulls him over to the right and out the door, to a patio of sorts where it's quieter. 

They just sort of stand there and look at each other for a bit, and then Harry chuckles quietly. "It's been quite the night, hasn't it?"

"And it's only seven thirty," Louis jokes, and then they both laugh. Louis feels better already. "Harry, about Cara -- I didn't mean to be so rude, she just --"

"Oh god, don't apologize, Lou. She deserved it, I'm so glad you said what you did. She was the one being rude, not you. I told her off about it after you left."

Louis swallows thickly. "I'm sorry your friends don't like me," he says quietly, and Harry just shakes his head. "Lou, Nick and Cara are just two people. Everyone else at Nick's really liked you."

Louis shrugs. Harry continues. "And, about Niall, I wasn't exactly polite to him either, I don't think, so, I'm sorry. I don't think he likes me very much either, though."

"Haz, Niall's just...protective, of his friends. He doesn't want a George repeat, basically. And I told him that you're nothing like George, but, he's just being careful is all. He has nothing against you. He's just trying to look out for me."

Harry nods. "Yeah, that -- that makes sense." He smiles suddenly, looking down at his feet. "Is it stupid to say that I'm really excited to prove him wrong?"

Louis grins and gets on his tip-toes to peck Harry's lips. "Not at all, love. Not at all," Louis says into the kiss, and Harry smiles, and they giggle.

"So, I was thinking..." Louis says next, and Harry's smile grows wider. "It's still early. And, this place is kind of -- not exactly...fun? With everything that's happened so far?"

Harry looks confused. Louis continues. "So, would you want to, like -- go to dinner or something instead? We can go somewhere nice, because we're all dressed up and everything. My treat."

Harry grins again. "You know, that actually sounds...really nice. Like, really really nice."

"Perfect," Louis says quietly, and with that the two of them sneak back into the crowded room and then steal away through the back exit, getting as far away as possible from all of the meddling people they've somehow surrounded themselves with.


	17. Chapter 17

March 2014

****

Louis is at a party with Harry when it happens. 

Louis's not really one for parties. He prefers to just sit around, relax, maybe hang out with a couple of friends. But he's only ever gone to one actual party, and it wasn't very fun. He ended up having to take care of a very intoxicated Tom the entire time, which wasn't exactly enjoyable, especially because Tom is a mopey drunk and burst into tears, crying nonstop for the following hour and a half.

Anyway, Harry begged him to go to this one party at the house of a friend of his from water polo, because he wanted to spend time with Louis and he thought it would be fun. After massive amounts of begging (and quite a few kisses, which may or may not have swayed Louis's decision), Louis finally agreed.

At this point, he wishes he hadn't.

When Harry's drunk, he likes to latch onto people, like a starfish. For quite a bit of the night, he's glued to Louis's side, which Louis actually enjoyed very much because Harry's quite funny when he's out of it. But then he left to get some pretzels, and now his arm is wrapped around Nick's shoulder and Louis doesn't like it. 

Nick is flushed and happy, beer in hand, cheeks red, and grinning ear to ear. He's glancing over at Louis from time to time, and his smile gets wider and wider every time. Louis wants to punch him in the face. 

He sulks in the corner, giving Nick the evil eye and Harry the sad eye, and Harry's laughing, not seeming to notice.

He needs to distract himself. This is getting ridiculous. 

He wanders into the kitchen, looking for a soda, and finally finds a can of Coke. He snaps it open, taking a gulp and meandering back into the living room.

If he'd only stayed in the kitchen for another minute or so, he probably wouldn't have had to witness this. 

The second he turns the corner, all he sees are Nick's arms wrapped around Harry's neck, their lips pressed together. 

The Coke fizzes and burns in Louis's stomach, threatening to bubble up his throat and out of his mouth. He hiccups, and Nick pulls back, his panicked eyes on Louis's. Harry's just standing there, doing nothing, so Louis sets the can of soda on a side table and scurries out of the house. 

Harry had said that they were getting a ride home from one of his friends, so Louis doesn't know how to get home. He can't call his mom; she'd freak out and ground him forever, and he didn't even tell her where he was going. 

Thankfully, he's got other options. 

He dials the number and the phone rings as he paces along the sidewalk in front of the house, hoping that Harry doesn't notice his absence. Not that he would anyways, he's too busy shoving his tongue down Nick's throat. His breathing gets shallower and shallower, and tears burn in his eyes. 

Then, the phone finally stops ringing. "Yeah?"

Louis breathes a shaky sigh of relief. "Zayn, I -- " he swallows thickly around the lump in his throat. "Can you come pick me up?" His voice cracks towards the end of his sentence, and he can hear the rustling of sheets, as if Zayn just sat up in bed. "Louis? What's wrong? Are you drunk?"

"No, you idiot," Louis hisses, in a slightly harsher tone than he means to. "I'm sorry," he apologizes quickly, before Zayn has time to get offended. "I just really need you to pick me up right now, like. It's -- it's an emergency."

"Okay, I'm on my way. Where are you?"

Louis turns around to find the number on the door of the house, reading it off to Zayn and rattling off the rest of the address before hanging up. He stares at the phone for a bit afterwards, biting his lip. 

No crying. Not here. If he's going to cry, he's going to fucking cry when he gets home, not out here where Harry could find him. 

He sits on the side of the sidewalk, head in his hands, breathing in and out of his nose. It's pretty late, nearing eleven, as a cool breeze ruffles his hair and causes him to shiver. He watches a tree sway back and forth across the street from him, trying to somehow occupy his mind for now, distract himself from what just happened. 

It doesn't work very well. 

Then, a car turns onto the street, headlights burning into the night. Louis jumps up to his feet quickly, squinting at the windshield and affirming that it's Zayn before jogging to the car. 

Upon seeing his best friend, Louis just can't stop the tears from coming. Zayn turns to him as soon as Louis slams the car door shut, concern written all over his face. "Louis, what's wrong?" 

That's when the dam crumbles. 

The tears come flowing down his face, and his chest shudders with a sob. "Holy shit, Louis, what happened?" Zayn asks, eyes widening. He rests a hand on Louis's arm, and Louis leans into the comforting touch. "Z, can you -- can you at least drive a little bit away from here. I don't want him to find me right now. I'll talk as soon as we're not -- not around here," Louis's blubbering pathetically now, "But p-please get us out of h-here."

Zayn's grip on Louis's arm tightens slightly, and his body goes still. He's quiet for a minute. "Harry?" he finally says quietly, and all Louis can do is nod. 

Zayn clenches his jaw and turns to the steering wheel, grasping it tightly in his hands and pulling away from the curb. 

As soon as they round the corner, Louis sees the front door of the house open through the side mirror, a curly head poking out. 

Louis buries his head into his hands and cries.

****

After texting his mom that he's staying at Zayn's for the night, Louis finds himself sitting on the floor of Zayn's bedroom, wearing one of Zayn's oversized sweaters and a pair of his pajama pants -- the green ones, with the Incredible Hulk written all over them. He's surrounded by piles and piles of tissues, his head hurts, and his throat is phlegmy and shot from crying so much. 

Zayn, the good friend that he is, simply brought him tea and let him cry for the better part of thirty minutes, not pushing for any explanations. The only indication that he's curious in any way is the growing anger in his eyes that becomes more and more prominent the longer Louis cries. 

At the moment, Louis's sobbing has been reduced to erratic breathing, and he looks up at Zayn, who's sitting on the bed, with red, puffy eyes. 

"Do you want to talk about it now?" Zayn asks quietly, moving over to join Louis on the floor. 

Louis nods, swallowing down more sobs at the sincerity of Zayn's tone. His phone buzzes again from where it's sitting next to him on the floor, Harry's name flashing onto the screen for the seventh time in the past fifteen minutes. Louis finally silences the phone, tossing it away angrily without bothering to read the texts. 

He pulls the sleeves of the sweater down his arms so that they cover his hands, and curls up into a ball and wraps his arms around his knees. Zayn waits. 

"So," Louis starts with a deep breath, voice shaky and hoarse. "Harry asked me to go to this party with him, so I did."

Zayn nods.

"And he was drunk."

Zayn nods again.

"And I saw him fucking kissing Nick Grimshaw." Louis can barely finish the sentence, ending with a whisper. Tears well up in his eyes again, and he's so fucking tired.

Zayn doesn't say anything.

After a few minutes, when Louis has calmed down enough to look up and breathe without his entire body convulsing, Zayn finally speaks. "Are you fucking kidding me?"

His tone is acidic. Louis loves his friends.

He shakes his head. "I was so stupid to fucking think that he'd actually like me," Louis continues with a whisper. "I knew from the beginning that he was too good for me. I was mad after him for months. I felt so special when he asked me out."

Zayn lets out a humorless laugh. "He is, in no way, better than you. Not even fucking close. You're too fucking good for him, because he's a lying, stupid, cheating piece of shit who doesn't deserve anyone's time of day. Are you serious?! I can't -- I can't even fucking believe -- I liked him, I thought he was fucking cool! I'm never wrong about people, I can usually tell when they're jerks, but this time -- oh, this time," Zayn sounds almost delirious now, "This time he fucking -- he fooled us all! What a shit!"

Louis says nothing, just wipes at his eyes. Zayn continues. 

"And wait until Niall finds out!" His voice is getting louder and louder. "Niall will literally chop his dick off, I swear to god. Niall was the only one who knew. Niall knew that he was a dickbag. And we didn't fucking listen to him, what the fuck."

"No!" Louis exclaims here, his voice going very embarrassingly high-pitched. "Don't tell him please," Louis whimpers. "I don't want him to know yet. I -- I can't deal with that. He won't stop talking about it, and -- and I just want to have this to myself for a little bit, before basically everyone at school knows about -- oh shit, school!" Louis lets out a strangled squeak. "No! Everyone will -- everyone's going to start talking about this, and making fun of me, and -- oh my fucking god, no."

Louis starts hyperventilating again, and Zayn is quick to calm him down, rubbing his back soothingly. "Stop, Louis," he says quietly, "That's not something you need to worry about right now. You did absolutely nothing wrong. He's the one who fucked up. You are completely fine."

"But -- "

"No. Don't even try, okay?"

After a moment of silence, Zayn sighs. "It's late. Let's get to sleep, okay?"

Louis sniffs, and nods. 

They move about the room in silence, Zayn laying out blankets on the floor for Louis, and Louis unrolling his sleeping bag. 

After a few minutes, when Louis is all wrapped up and comfortable and Zayn is about to turn out the lights, Louis sighs. "Thank you Zayn," he says quietly. "I don't know what I'd do without you."

Zayn chuckles. "S'what friends are for, Lou."

Then, the room is dark.

****

Louis wakes up thinking the entire thing was a dream. He curses himself and his subconscious for creating such painful ideas -- but then he realizes that he is, in fact, on Zayn's floor, and that his eyes are puffy and his throat is still sore, and reality comes crashing in. 

And then he grabs his phone from where it's lying face-down on the floor, noting that it's almost noon, and sees the missed call from his mom. 

He sees more notifications below that, but he refuses to look at them. 

Carefully checking that Zayn's still asleep, Louis tiptoes out of the room and goes into the living room. He calls his mother, and she picks up on the first ring. "Did you only just wake up?" she asks jokingly, and the fondness in her voice makes him want to burst into tears all over again. 

"Hey," he simply says quietly, and she's quick to pick up on the fact that something's wrong. "Lou, are you okay? Do you want me to come pick you up?"

Louis swallows thickly. No more tears. "Yes please," he says quietly. "I'm on my way," is all she says before hanging up, and Louis sighs. 

He pads back into the hallway and finds Zayn sitting up in bed, hair mussed up in a way that would be comical if Louis weren't so upset. 

"Who were you talking to?" Zayn asks, seriously but sleepily, and Louis gives him a smile that he knows doesn't reach his eyes. "My mom. She's coming to get me right now."

Zayn relaxes. "Oh. Okay then," he says quietly stretching. 

Louis starts rolling up the sleeping bag, and once he's got everything together, he sits on the floor, clutches his phone, and waits. 

He really wants to be alone, in his room, blasting really angry music and wallowing in his own misery.

"Try not to think about it," Zayn offers, but Louis silences him with one look. 

When his mom texts him that she's here, Louis stands up quickly. He goes over to Zayn and gives him the biggest hug he's capable of giving, thanking him multiple times. Zayn mutters some cusses about Harry, and Louis tries to laugh, he really does.

It's hard.

And as he walks outside, ready to face his mother's inevitable interrogation, he thinks back to when this all began, when it was just a simple crush. 

He never imagined that this is where he'd end up.


	18. Chapter 18

His phone doesn't stop going off throughout the rest of the weekend. And nine times out of ten, it's Harry. Otherwise, it's Zayn checking in on him, and Niall sending stupid, random things because Louis hasn't told him what happened yet.

He always responds to Zayn and Niall. Harry's texts and voicemails, however, remain unopened and unanswered. 

His mother had been very understanding about the entire situation, and allowed him to skip school on Monday. A part of him is angry with himself for needing a day off in the first place; he should be at school, showing Harry that he doesn't need him. But in all honesty, he just can't bring himself to face Harry or Nick yet.

He sleeps in until noon and makes himself scrambled eggs for breakfast. He determinedly leaves his phone face-down where it's plugged in on his bedside table, and watches Full House re-runs, getting some homework done here and there as well. 

Only when his mom gets home from work and starts making their dinner does he decide to check his phone, because at least she's here if he has another breakdown.

He sees three missed calls and seven texts from Zayn:

(6:55) ive been waiting outside your house for 15 min, called you tons. come outside

(6:59) already crazy late, can't wait any longer, sorry man. your mom's car is gone though so im hoping she drove you to school today?

(8:23) where are you? ditching?

(10:52) you ok?

(11:30) lou cmon

(1:05) harry came up to me at lunch asking for you. i told him to go fuck himself

(1:30) hope everythings ok, text me when you can xxx

Fuck, he forgot to text Zayn last night to tell him that he didn't need a ride this morning. And he went and made him late to class. He pinches the bridge of his nose, taking a deep breath. He's an awful friend, really.

There are also three texts from Niall:

(11:27) ppl keep talkin bout somethin that happened w u and harry. is it true?

(12:17) im takin that as a yes. hes dumb as shit

(12:18) fucker

Louis groans to himself. Fuck fuck fuck. Not only does Niall know, but apparently there are already rumors. Fucking hell.

There's a glaring "47" burning into the screen next to Harry's name. He braces himself, and clicks on Harry's name.

The texts he sees can roughly be summarized by these:

(Mar 15) whered you go?

(Mar 15) did you leave? howd you get home?

(Mar 15) you ok?

(Mar 15) i have to tell you something.

And these:

(Mar 16) i need to talk to you.

(Mar 16) pls dont be mad at me, i need to explain. i wanted to tell you yesterday before you heard from anyone else, but i think its too late for that

(Mar 16) it wasnt my fault, i swear its not what you think lou

(Mar 16) pls dont do this im freaking out rn, talk to me. i cant lose you

And finally, these:

(7:01) youre not in class, are you ok?

(7:15) pls respond to me, say something. anything

(7:16) i care about you so much lou you know i wouldnt do anything stupid to hurt you

(7:20) if you end up coming to school today, meet me by the pool at 3

(2:55) here. waiting

(3:10) you comin?

(3: 46) ok, i see. 

(3:47) ik youre mad at me, and youve got reason to be. just hear me out

And a last one sent about five minutes ago:

(7:14) i miss talking to you. and being with you. and you, in general. xx

Louis swallows the lump that's forming in his throat. 

No. No more crying. He can't keep doing this. 

He flops down onto his bed, hitting Zayn's contact name and pressing 'Call.' The phone rings twice before he answers. 

"Finally! Was beginning to think you were dead or something."

"Ha ha. Very funny," Louis says, a bit more bitterly than he wanted to. 

Zayn sighs. "Why didn't you come to school today?"

"Obvious reasons."

Pause. "Right, gotcha. Anyway. How are you feeling?"

Louis pushes his hair out of his eyes. "Alright. Better than Saturday, definitely. But, not great. Listen, I'm really really sorry about not telling you that I didn't need a ride today. I feel really bad about making you late to class."

"Hey, don't even worry about it," Zayn says.

There's a moment of silence. Then: "Listen Lou, I'm there for you tomorrow, okay?. I'll come meet you at your classroom at the very beginning of lunch and I won't leave your side for a second."

Louis feels tears well up in his eyes. "Thanks. I feel like I should talk to him, though. At some point."

"Well, I definitely agree. Just, don't talk to him until you're ready. Like, having a serious talk at school tomorrow probably isn't the best idea."

Louis snorts. "Obviously. But really, what difference would it make? Everyone's talking about it already. Niall texted me saying he knew."

"It really isn't as bad as you think. Most people are siding with you, to be honest, but that's not surprising. I already told you Lou, you did absolutely nothing wrong. And anyways, now that Niall knows, he'll have your back tomorrow too. Everything will be okay."

Louis desperately wishes he could believe him. "Alright, thanks. I've got to go, though, so I'll see you tomorrow." 

"Remember Lou, I've got you, and Niall's got you. You have nothing to worry about."

He laughs a little here. He's got great friends, really. "Thanks Z. Bye."

"Seeya."

Louis shuts his phone off and sets it on his side table, thinking about what Zayn said, and feeling slightly better that the entire school isn't hating/ridiculing him the way he thought they would.

But he also thinks about what Harry could possibly want to tell him, what he could possibly say to make it better. Louis saw him kissing Nick. End of story. 

"Louis, dinner's ready!" his mom calls up the stairs, and Louis heaves himself off of his comforter. As he walks down the stairs, he smells spaghetti -- one of his favorites -- and smiles. 

Zayn could be right. Maybe things won't be all that bad.

****

Louis forgets all about Zayn's reassuring talk on his way to history the next morning. His stomach is in knots, he's going to throw up the banana he ate for breakfast, and he's sweating as if it's over one hundred degrees out.

He looks around hopefully as he ascends the stairs to the history building. He had wanted to run into Niall so that he could at least walk into class with another person and not by himself, but Niall isn't around. 

But then he turns the corner and Niall's waiting against the wall outside of their classroom, and Louis is so happy that he could kiss him. 

Niall sees him and hurries over, hugging him tight. 

"He's right inside, waiting by the door, because Stevens is late as usual" Niall mutters in his ear, and Louis gulps. "I'm going to walk in with you and I'm going to be talking to you. Hopefully he won't try and talk to you if you're talking to me." He pulls back. "Got it?"

Louis nods, steeling himself. It's time to put on a brave face.

"Hey," Niall says gently, smiling at him. "If it makes you feel better, he's not speaking to Grimshaw."

Louis's heart flutters. "Why not?"

Niall shrugs. "Beats me." The bell rings. "Alright, let's get inside. I'm going to talk to you about how elephants are the best animals on the planet. Just follow my lead."

Louis snorts at the absurd choice in topic. "Sure."

"So," he says loudly, as he starts walking. "Like I said, I took my little cousin to the zoo, right? And she just couldn't stop talking about the damn elephants!"

"Really?" Louis says, feigning interest. 

"Seriously! Not like I blame her though, because they're the best damn animals in the fucking world. She just..."

Louis doesn't listen to the rest of Niall's rant, because they're inside -- and Niall was right, Harry's standing right there.

He looks upset, his hair limp and not styled as usual, and his eyes dim. The second Louis walks in, though, he lights up like the sun, and it hurts.

"Lo --"

"AND," Niall says louder, drowning out Harry's voice, "She named the second one Pip! Isn't that a perfect name for an elephant?"

Louis just nods, staring at the ground as he makes his way over to his seat. Niall follows, sitting in the empty seat next to him. 

Harry follows the two of them, pouting. He's gorgeous. Louis's heart aches.

He sits in his seat in front of Louis and turns around expectantly, eyes wide. Louis determinedly faces his right side and nods along with Niall's one-sided conversation. Niall is eyeing Harry angrily, but Harry doesn't seem to notice. His eyes are on Louis.

Louis's blushing like crazy. This is, by far, the most uncomfortable situation he's ever been in. He can feel Nick's gaze burning into them from across the room, which makes it all so much worse.

Harry sets his mouth determinedly. "Louis," he says forcefully, interrupting Niall. "Will you please talk to me?"

"No," Niall says immediately, "He won't." Hints of a challenge glimmer in Niall's eyes as he stares Harry down, and Harry clenches his jaw, staring right back. This uncomfortable stare-off only lasts for a second or two, but Louis feels like it goes on for ages. "Niall," he says gently, causing them both to look at him in surprise. "It's okay, I've got this."

Niall huffs, leaning back in his seat. Harry looks at him hopefully. 

Louis swallows thickly, staring down at the desk in front of him. "I have nothing to say to you," he says quietly.

He doesn't dare look up to see Harry's reaction. 

"Well," Harry says shakily. "I've got so much that I'd like to say to you. Can we please talk?"

"I don't think now's the time, Harry," Louis continues softly, and Harry is about to respond, but then Mr. Stevens walks in, and Louis sighs in relief. 

"Everyone please get to your assigned seats, this is no time to socialize!" he says loudly, and Niall rolls his eyes. He pats Louis's arm as he passes, throwing Harry one last glare, before heading back to his seat. 

Harry gives Louis one last burning, sad look before turning around in his seat and facing the front of the room. 

Louis just clenches the side of the desk, and prays for the moment that this class period ends. 

****

The second the bell rings, Louis is jumping out of his seat, throwing his backpack over his shoulder. Niall's already waiting by the door, and they rush out together, the first ones out of the room. 

He can vaguely remember Harry calling after him, but he's trying to pretend that didn't happen.

****

Louis, Zayn, Niall, and Demi eat lunch together that day, the three flanking Louis like bodyguards. They talk about anything and everything other than Harry, and while Louis appreciates it, he can't help but feel sad. 

Zayn gives him silent looks, though, raising his eyebrows as if to ask, "You okay?"

Louis always forces a smile and nods, and Zayn is always satisfied.

But all Louis wants is Harry. 

****

Spanish is tough. Louis hasn't got a Niall or Zayn to help him, and it's his last class of the day. Harry could easily corner him and talk to him, and Louis isn't ready to hear Harry's bullshit excuses quite yet.

He did tell Zayn to basically sprint over to his classroom as soon as the bell rings though, and meet him there so that they could walk to his locker together. Louis just doesn't want to be alone. 

The class period inches by at a snail's pace, and Louis can't stop eyeing the clock. 

After an eternity, the bell rings, and Louis dashes outside, hoping that Zayn would be there already. 

He isn't. Louis knows that Zayn's classroom is all the way on the other side of campus, and it was probably foolish of him to hope that Zayn could've possibly made it to his classroom so soon, but hey. Desperate times, and that. If that saying even applies?

He doesn't know. He's far too distracted to keep anything in order at the moment, especially not his own thoughts.

"Louis!"

And there it is. Louis sighs. 

He resolutely faces the opposite direction that the voice is coming from. Then, a finger hesitantly taps on his shoulder, and Louis briefly squeezes his eyes shut. 

He turns around slowly, only to see large, green, desperate-looking eyes looking down into his, and his heart stops for a moment before beginning to beat erratically. 

"Hi," is all Harry says, and Louis just nods in response, taking a slow step away from Harry. Harry just pouts though, furrowing his eyebrows, and takes a step closer. "Can we talk now?"

"I'm waiting for Zayn."

"Oh. Um. Can we talk until he gets here?"

Louis presses his lips together. Harry looks so sad, is the thing, and he knows he's not supposed to give in but Harry looks just as miserable as Louis feels. This conversation has to happen eventually, after all, and maybe listening to Harry ramble and lie will help him convince himself that Harry's not right for Louis. Like closure, or something.

"I suppose," is what he finally says, and Harry's eyes light up like they did that morning, and Louis's heart stutters again. 

"You've got to understand, Louis, that I didn't -- and I really mean it, I didn't at all in any way -- "

"Harry!"

And god, that's Nick's voice, and Louis had been doing so well.

Tears well up in his eyes, and Harry's eyes widen when he sees them. "Louis, please don't cry, he's a --"

"Harry, please don't ignore me," Nick calls out, running up to them and acting as though Louis's not there. 

"Nick, I told you to leave me the fuck alone. You've got some nerve, fucking coming over here."

"You can't keep avoiding me forever, H," Nick says acidly, and Louis wants to barf. 

"Don't call me that," Harry snaps, his voice seemingly getting deeper in the last second. His eyes are full of anger as he glares at Nick, and Louis is legitimately scared, like that one time when Harry yelled at George in the coffee shop. 

And then, Louis wants to bow down and praise the lord, because Zayn turns the corner, and it's all Louis can do to keep from running over to him. 

"Louis?" Zayn calls, jogging over to the three of them. "What's going on here?" He directs the second part of his sentence towards Harry and Nick, his tone positively cringe-worthy. Zayn can be scary as shit when he wants to be. 

"Stay out of this, Zayn, it doesn't concern you," Nick says harshly, not taking his eyes off of Harry. 

Zayn narrows his eyes at him. "Excuse me?"

Well, shit.

"Nick, can you please go away? I was talking to Louis about something really important," Harry huffs impatiently.

"Really?" Zayn says bitingly in response, before Nick can say anything. "It can't be that important to you, right? Because obviously, if all of this was really important to you, you wouldn't have kissed this fool," he points to Nick here, who looks very offended, "at the party on Saturday, right in front of Louis's fucking eyes. After all I helped you with, too, after everything we talked about. You lied to me, and you lied to him."

"No, you guys don't get it, I didn't -- wait, Louis, you saw that? I thought you just heard about it, I... "

Harry's voice fades when he sees Louis cross his arms and stare down at his shoes. 

"God, this is worse than I thought," Harry says, words rushed. "It's really important that I explain all of this to you right now, none of it is what you think -- " 

"Explaining that is more important to you than resolving a fight with your best friend? Are you serious?" Nick asks exasperatedly. 

"Oh shut up, are you really so stupid as to get involved in this right now? Despite the fact that Harry's an idiot," Zayn says to Nick, and now it's Harry's turn to look offended, "they're discussing their relationship. You have no right to judge." Nick raises his eyebrows. "Really hypocritical of you to say. You're not involved in their relationship and yet it seems like you're doing all of the talking here. Stay out of this, Zayn."

"But I'm not trying to ruin their relationship. Newsflash Nick: there's a massive difference between supporting your best friend, and purposely trying to screw with peoples' heads by poking your huge nose into things that don't involve you, the way you are. I care about Louis, so I'm going to be here for him. And also," he adds, before pausing. Then, to everyone's surprise, he lets out a little laugh that sounds positively evil, and Louis is fucking terrified. "I wasn't the one who kissed Harry. So because of that alone, I have much more of a right to be talking right now, and you have much more of a right to shut your motherfucking mouth." 

"Hey Zayn," Louis says quickly, because he does not like where this is going. "We should leave, yeah?"

"No Louis, don't go, I really need to finish talking to you," Harry says quickly, and Nick laughs. "Harry, do you hear yourself? What the fuck are you doing, bothering with these losers?! Louis doesn't deserve you! He's fucking pathetic, look at him! You can do so much better!"

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Louis says incredulously before he even realizes that he's speaking. 

"No, I'm completely serious," Nick says mockingly, stepping forward. 

"You -- you can't just talk to me like that," Louis says, wanting to come off as intimidating, but failing immensely when he ends up stuttering.

"But I can, though," Nick says, stepping forward and lightly shoving Louis away from him.

That's when Zayn punches him. 

It happens so quickly that Louis barely registers it himself. One second, he's feeling so unbelievably hurt by what Nick said, and he feels his face falling in as he stumbles backward -- and then Zayn's fist is connecting with Nick's nose. 

"Holy shit!" Harry yells, and Louis's mouth falls open in shock, and Nick's holding onto his nose, and Zayn's staring at his own hand as though he hadn't expected that to happen. People around them are gasping and running over, and Nick's face is bleeding, and Harry's giving Zayn a shocked look -- and then Zayn's grabbing Louis's arm and pulling him away down the hall. 

"Wait!" Harry shouts, but they turn the corner without looking back.


	19. Chapter 19

Everyone knows about what happened.

"I feel bad," Zayn mutters to Louis as they're walking to class two days later. "Like, he's a dick and definitely deserved it, but I've never hurt anyone like that before. I don't know what came over me, it just -- he was being awful to you, and I had to do something. I'm just thankful no one told any teachers or anything, because my parents would fucking kill me if I got suspended."

Louis doesn't respond, just shrugs, gripping his math textbook a bit tighter to his chest. 

"What makes me feel better though," Zayn continues, "is that Nick still doesn't feel bad about any of the terrible things he's done. Like, any normal person would feel guilty for kissing someone who's taken, or being rude to someone to their face like he did to you. But he still refuses to apologize. He's going 'round, talkin' shit, even after everything. If I had to punch someone, I'm glad it was him."

Louis gives Zayn a small smile. "You do realize that you didn't actually have to do any of that, right? I could've -- "

"No, you couldn't have."

"You don't even know what I was going to say!"

"Whatever it was, you couldn't have."

"Well why not?"

"Because, you were -- to be honest, you were just kind of hurt. After everything that's happened, and Nick being a jerk to you on top of it all...I don't think you had the energy to say or do anything."

He's got a point. "Whatever."

Zayn lets out a short laugh and throws an arm around Louis's shoulders. "Told you I'd have your back."

Louis rolls his eyes, and they leave it at that.

****

The situation with Harry is an entirely different issue.

Harry hasn't tried to contact him since the fight. Louis doesn't know how he feels about that. 

He's a bit ashamed, really, because he misses Harry loads. Loads more than he cares to admit. And he hasn't talked to anyone about it, which is extraordinarily strange for Louis because he usually likes to talk to at least Zayn about these things. But he doesn't know what he'd say -- "Hey Zayn, I really appreciate the fact that you punched a guy for me but it's going to all be for nothing because I really just want to make up with Harry"? He doubts Zayn would understand. 

Whenever he's seen Harry in class or around campus, Harry's just looked at him with sad eyes before ducking his head and getting out of Louis's way. It makes Louis feel confused and sad and a mess of emotions that he doesn't even want to begin to attempt to decipher. 

He feels tired, is what it is. He's just exhausted. He doesn't want to think, he doesn't want to talk to anyone, he doesn't want to do anything. It's unpleasant and terrible and he wants to change it, he really does, but he just can't find the will, the strength. 

He continues moping about as usual, hoping that one morning he'll wake up feeling not feeling like he's practically dead.

**** 

Louis is dragging himself through the locker hall when he's met with an unexpected surprise -- Cara, of all people, waiting at his locker. 

He furrows his eyebrows in confusion, walking faster. Why is she standing there? How would she even know where Louis's locker is? Did Harry put her up to this?

As he gets closer to his locker, he slows down, eyeing Cara warily. She smiles slightly when she sees him, stepping forward when he starts twisting in his locker combination. 

"Hi Louis," she says casually, and Louis pauses for a moment. He turns to look at her. "Hi," he says cautiously. 

He gets his books out in silence, with her standing there and not saying anything. He's in the process of putting his English binder away when she finally says something again. "I wanted to apologize."

Louis is stunned.

He zips up his backpack and slams his locker door shut, turning to her and leaning agianst the wall of lockers. "For what?"

She fidgets, tucking a lock of her hair behind her ear. "For being rude to you. For not even really giving you a chance. For assuming things."

Louis swallows thickly. "Oh," he rasps, "Okay. Well. Thanks."

Cara doesn't leave. Louis raises his eyebrows at her.

She scratches the back of her neck. "I also wanted to say that I think it was super shitty of Nick to do what he did. And that, um, that you have every right to be mad at him. But, I think you should like, talk. To Harry, I mean."

Louis sighs, pushing himself off the wall and starting to walk away. "Harry put you up to this. I'm not interested."

He then feels a hand grab his elbow, and he spins around quickly, surprised. The sad look in her eyes is genuine beyond belief. He can't understand this. 

"He didn't though," she says quietly, slowly letting go of Louis's arm. She cracks a smile here. "I'm just sick of him being miserable about it, to be honest."

Louis doesn't move. He's frozen, out of shock. 

"He really does care about you, Louis."

He turns around and walks away.

****

Louis had thought that this day couldn't get any weirder. He was wrong. 

He's cornered by Nick after their environmental science class, which is terrifying, because he thinks Nick might try to punch him or something to get back at Zayn. But to his surprise, Nick simply looks tired -- as tired as Louis feels, really. 

"Listen, Louis," Nick says, "I'm really sorry. I was totally out of line in saying what I said to you, and I completely, one hundred percent mean that. And also, I think you should know, that -- that Harry didn't do anything."

Louis raises his eyebrows. "Come again?"

"The night of the party. Harry didn't -- he didn't kiss me. I kissed him."

Louis scoffs. "Kissing is kind of a two way street, if you didn't know."

Nick shakes his head rapidly. "No, you don't understand. It was all my fault," he says softly, "I kissed him because I was drunk and I've had this stupid crush on him for months. And, I don't know. I let my jealousy get the best of me, and I acted childishly and ridiculously. I practically pushed myself onto him. He didn't kiss me back at all, he just pushed me away and was super surprised and got really mad at me. It felt terrible, and wasn't worth it, so. I'm sorry."

Louis feels like the biggest fucking idiot on the god damn planet, because how could he not have considered this? He knew, at the time, that Nick had some weird thing for Harry, he knew that. 

He had jumped to conclusions, as he usually does. He fucking jumped to conclusions and fucked everything up.

"Besides," Nick says, as he starts walking away, "I thought about it, and I realized that you care about him so much more than I ever could. You should talk to him."

And with a small wave, Nick walks out of the classroom.

****

Louis waits by the pool after school that day. 

It's almost as though he's on autopilot, unable to think about what he's doing. He texts Zayn, telling him that his mom is picking him up from school today, when that's clearly not the case. And he never lies to Zayn. 

He leans against the brick wall outside of the entrance to the pool, tipping his head back. He has no idea what he's even going to say -- he's got no idea if Harry even wants to speak to him, after everything. 

All he knows is that he's definitely going to try. 

His phone buzzes in his hand, and he checks it, grateful for the distraction from his nerves. It's a reply from Zayn. 

k :) 

Louis pouts, but doesn't really have time to feel guilty, because -- 

"Louis?"

Louis starts, nearly dropping his phone. He locks eyes with Harry for the longest he has in days, the green looking bright and confused. Louis's eyes then travel downward, because he can't help it -- Harry's wearing gray, low-hanging sweats dotted with dark wet spots from the pool water that's still running down Harry's hair and skin. He hasn't got a shirt on, just a light blue towel thrown over his shoulder. His flip flops look as though they've just been dunked into the pool themselves, and his hair is pushed back, the sopping strands creating a small puddle around Harry's feet. 

"Did you even try to dry yourself off?" is the first thing that Louis is able to blurt out, and he curses himself immediately afterward, because that was positively idiotic. 

"Um. Yeah? Just -- the showers are full, so I thought I'd just go home 'cause it's not far, and." He just stops talking there, looking adorably confused and nervous and Louis is so remarkably hurt by everything that's come between them. 

He honestly has no idea what to say now -- he wasn't kidding; he's completely on autopilot, he had no plan going into this -- so Harry clears his throat. "Did -- did you need something, or?..."

"Right. Um, not really, I just -- I just wanted to talk. To you. If you want to."

Harry's eyes widen. "Oh! Yeah, I do, that'd be really great! D'you -- " Harry looks around briefly at the clumps of people around them, who aren't necessary listening, but still, this would be a better conversation to have in private, "D'you want to come over to mine, and we can talk?"

Louis's breath hitches. He's not sure if he's comfortable with that, and he's about to say as much, when Harry starts talking again. "I don't mean -- I'm not trying to do anything, honest. I just think it'd be most convenient that way? We can totally go somewhere else, if you're afraid that I'd -- "

"Oh god, Harry," Louis interrupts, because does Harry really think that's what Louis's worried about? "No, it's fine, I wasn't even thinking any of that stuff."

Harry's body relaxes. "Oh, okay. Cool. So, my car's that way, do you want to go?"

"Yeah, sure."

The walk to Harry's car is silent, and Harry's walking slightly ahead of him, which gives Louis an opportunity to admire him in his shirtless glory -- because yeah, even when things aren't necessarily great between them, Louis can't deny that he's really fucking attractive. Sue him.

A couple of Harry's friends come up to him and give him quick pats on the back, congratulating him on a good practice, and Louis can't help but watch the way Harry's back muscles ripple as he moves. He snaps himself out of it almost as soon as he realizes he's being drooly, face red-hot. It's all very irritating. 

Eventually, they get to Harry's car, and Louis can't really breathe throughout the entire ride to Harry's. It's all so familiar, yet completely foreign at the same time, because of everything that happened. Jesus, they had their first kiss in here, they -- 

"You okay Louis?"

Harry's eyeing him curiously, and Louis presses his lips together. "Yeah, fine."

Harry nods in response. Silence reclaims the car. 

Louis only barely manages to stop himself from sighing as he stares out the car window. His hands are shaking in his lap. 

When they finally pull into Harry's driveway, Louis's heart is pounding double-time. Harry gets out of the car quickly, looking back for a moment to make sure that Louis's following before unlocking the front door and holding it open for Louis to walk inside.

Louis ducks his head as he steps in, refusing to meet Harry's eyes, because Harry is honestly positively ridiculous. Even though he, in all probability, hates Louis right now, he's still opening doors for him and inviting him into his damn house and he can't handle it, is the thing. 

He's going to cry. If he doesn't say something and say something fast, he's going to cry. 

Harry follows him into the house and gently shuts the door. Louis is waiting awkwardly for Harry to lead him to wherever he wants to talk, and Harry meets his eyes briefly before gesturing for Louis to follow him.

The house is strangely quiet, quieter than whenever Louis's been over, as they head upstairs. "Is your mom home? Or Gemma?" Louis asks softly, and Harry almost trips over one of the steps. 

"Woah," Louis says quickly reaching out in front of him and placing his hand on Harry's back before he consciously realizes what he's doing. "Careful."

He can't see Harry's facial expression, but Harry has stilled under Louis's touch. "Thanks," he mutters, slowly starting to move again. Louis's hand drops pathetically to his side as he follows, legs shaking. 

"And no, they're not," Harry says once they're upstairs, making their way down the hall to Harry's room. "My mom's at work, and Gemma went somewhere with her friends or boyfriend or something."

Louis doesn't say anything in response, feeling awkward, but what else is new. 

Harry pushes open the door to his room, sitting on the edge of his bed and gesturing for Louis to take his desk chair. 

Louis's not even sitting down yet when Harry starts talking. 

"i didn't do it," he blurts out, and Louis looks at him curiously, lowering himself into the chair. "What?"

"I just thought," Harry says, cheeks reddening, "that I should tell you that right now, before we're interrupted again or something. That's what I want you to know that I didn't do anything. He -- he just turned around and grabbed me and kissed me, I had no part in it. I was drunk and my reflexes were slow but I pushed him away I swear, he -- "

"I know."

Harry's face crumples. "You know? And you didn't talk to me about it?"

"I -- I only found out today. Nick told me everything, I -- if anything, I should be the one apologizing to you, because. I don't know, I jumped to conclusions, and I was being a shit. I completely doubted you, which I shouldn't have done at all, but I had just been so scared, Haz. Like, you're you, with all of your cool social, party-loving friends, and I'm just me, the person that barely anyone pays attention to. I had figured that it was only a matter of time until something like this happened. I don't know."

Harry pouts now, eyebrows pulling together. He pats the spot next to him on the bed and Louis walks over, carefully sitting a foot away from Harry. 

Harry rolls his eyes and moves so that their legs are touching, and takes Louis's hand. "Louis," he says, still pouting, "I like you a lot, okay? I don't care if you're not on a varsity sports team, or that you hang out with people who are different from my friends, or that you don't like parties. What I do care about is you. I care about you and how happy you make me, and about how great I feel when we're together. I like that you're different from my friends, I like your friends and the fact that you'd rather cuddle up and watch a movie on a Friday night than go out, because a lot of the time I feel the exact same way. I like that with you, there's no pressure to live up to a reputation, the way it is with my friends. And I don't want to leave you. Regardless of what you think, I'm not shallow enough to be swayed by my friends' definition of 'boyfriend material.' I don't want to date someone who relies on partying to have fun every fucking weekend. I want to be with someone like you, because I like everything about you, every last thing. You make me happy." He takes a deep breath and smiles at Louis before continuing. "So no, I wouldn't ever leave you because of something like that. I would never want you to think that I'm like that, because that's something that George would do, and I fucking swear that I'm not like George. I will never be like George. I care about you far too much. Like I said -- you just make me happy, Louis."

Louis doesn't know what to say. He could say that he likes everything about Harry too, he could say that he's so relieved and grateful that Harry doesn't hate him, he could say that Harry is everything he's wanted for the longest fucking time, but he can't find the right words to convey all of that at the moment.

So he kisses him.

The second their lips touch, Harry shifts closer to Louis, cupping his cheek in his hand while Louis tangles his hand in Harry's curls. They kiss for a bit, before Louis pulls back, loosening his grip on Harry's hair but not completely letting go. "I'm sorry for assuming things," Louis says quietly. "I'm sorry for being the biggest jerk in the world. I'm sorry for being mean to you and allowing this to come between us. I'm sorry that I treated you like you were someone like George, which I know you're not and I've always known you're not, deep down. I was just being stupid. I do trust you, really. I promise, from now on, I won't be like that, I won't doubt you and I'll prove to you that I trust you -- if you'd take me back, that is."

And Harry's lights up like the sun and the moon and the fucking stars, his face breaking out into one of the biggest grins Louis has ever seen. "Of course I want you back, you idiot," Harry says quietly, leaning in to kiss him again.

Louis pulls back though, and wraps his arms around Harry's shoulders, burying his face in Harry's neck. Harry hugs him back tightly, his warm body making Louis feel so safe and happy and lucky that he's got someone as amazing as Harry. "Thank you," Louis says quietly, and Harry just grips him tighter. "No need to thank me, Lou," he says quietly, "No need to thank me."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've probably only got an epilogue left after this, which is so insanely sad to think about at the moment :( I can't believe this is almost over, I feel like I've been writing it forever. Anyways, thank you all so much for reading so far -- hope you like this one!


	20. Chapter 20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the end and I'm going to cry oh my god. Thank you guys so much for reading, so much love to everyone <3

June 2015

****

"Well?"

Louis holds his arms out and spins in a circle slowly, feeling an extraordinarily massive amount of deja vu settle over him as he does so. 

Zayn smirks from where he's standing across the room, leaning against the wall in his own tux. "You look hot. I've done good." He says it jokingly, the very same words he'd said to Louis before winter formal months and months ago, but with laughter dancing in his eyes. 

Louis raises his eyebrows at his best friend, trying to hold back a smile and failing. "Thanks man."

Zayn walks over to him, quiff bouncing slightly as he moves. He reaches out and tugs on Louis's blazer a bit, then straightens his tie. He then lets out a small laugh, and Louis gives him a questioning look. 

"I still can't believe," Zayn mutters, "that you actually let me punch a guy for you."

Louis lets out a loud bark of laughter. "It was for nothing too, that's the best part."

"Not entirely. Regardless of whether or not I had the wrong idea at the time, he was still a jerk, and he still deserved it."

"He apologized," Louis says quietly, reaching over to fix Zayn's bowtie in return.

Zayn rolls his eyes. "Whatever."

Louis chuckles quietly. "Thanks for being so good about all of it though. For understanding."

Zayn shrugs. "We were all blinded at least a little bit, at the time."

Louis nods in agreement, but doesn't have the time to say anything more, because his mom is calling their names up the stairs. 

"Ah," Louis says quietly, "That'll be them."

Zayn swallows thickly. "I'm kind of nervous. Is that bad?"

Louis smiles warmly at his friend. "Not at all. But honestly, you've got nothing to be worried about. Tom's a great guy."

"We've never actually hung out that much before, though. Like, when he asked me, it was totally out of nowhere."

"Trust me. You'll be fine. More than fine, probably."

"Louis!" Jay calls up the stairs again, and Louis sighs. "Coming!" he shouts out the door in response, and turns back to Zayn. "Ready?"

Zayn takes a deep breath, adjusts his quiff, and nods. 

****

When Louis and Zayn walk into the Tomlinson living room, Harry and his mom are talking to Jay, all laughing at something Harry said.

Louis's not surprised. The first time he brought Harry home to meet his family, they were all charmed instantly. He's still got no idea how he does it. 

Then, Harry turns his head ever so slightly, and catches Louis's eye. 

Louis wishes now that he could've filmed the way Harry's face lit up, because it was easily one of the most gorgeous things Louis has ever seen. He's beaming at Louis, eyes sparkling -- it was the eyes, Louis thinks, the eyes were what did it for him. Louis fell in love with those eyes the second he really, properly looked into them that first time, on that first day of school. 

He's wearing a blazer/collared shirt combo, forgoing a tie completely in favor of a patterned black and white scarf draped around his neck. He's also got this ridiculously large hat on his head, with a wide brim, and Louis has to hold back a laugh, because of course Harry would. 

Louis makes his way over to Harry, momentarily forgetting that their mothers are standing there, and flicks Harry's hat as Harry's wrapping a hand around Louis's waist. "Prom night is hardly the time to conduct fashion experiments, Haz."

Harry just bites his lip, amusement swimming in the depths of his green eyes. "Are you telling me that you don't like my outfit?" he says, jokingly upset.

Louis laughs. "It's horrendous, darling." 

Jay clears her throat from behind them. "This coupley bickering is torturous, you're killing us all you two. Also, you're not even going to say hi, Lou?" she says playfully, and Louis and Harry blush. "Sorry mom. Hi Anne!" Louis says quickly, and Jay and Anne both smile at the two of them, amused. "You look great darling," Jay says to Louis, reaching up to fix a stray hair or two. Louis rolls his eyes but doesn't protest, knowing that arguing with his mother is futile. Harry just looks amused, but honestly, when does he not?

"I need to get some photos of you two," Anne says then, "and then we need to get some group shots. Did Niall and Liam tell you when they'd be arriving with their dates?"

Then, as if on cue, the doorbell rings. Harry's smile stiffens ever-so-slightly, but Louis places a soothing hand on his arm, which relaxes him a bit. 

"It's open," Jay calls as she walks toward the door, and then Liam and Danielle are stepping inside. "Hey everyone!" Liam says happily, waving to everyone and then going to greet everyone individually while Danielle does the same. Right behind them is Demi, and then behind her is Niall, but the two of them simply greet Jay before heading straight over to Louis and Harry. 

Demi hugs them both first, saying hello and everything customary. It's all still feeling very deja vu to Louis. Niall hugs Louis next, and then turns to Harry. 

Niall still has got a bit of a grudge, despite the Nick incident having been over a year ago. He has, however, been surprisingly kind to Harry -- and Louis, Niall, Harry, and Demi have actually been on multiple double dates that didn't end in disaster, so Louis's going to count all of this as a success. 

There's some lingering tension between the two, though, and right now, it makes Louis especially nervous.

But then Niall holds his arms out to Harry, giving him an impish grin, and Harry grins right back, stepping into Niall's embrace.

"How ya doin, man?" Niall says, patting Harry on the back.

"Great, thanks, and you?" Harry says happily as they pull away, and the two start having a full-on conversation as Louis looks on with hearts in his eyes. 

He tunes out of whatever they're saying after a few moments, though, his eyes searching through the small group of friends and parents gathered in his living room for Zayn. He spots him and Tom near the front of the room, talking to each other shyly, and Louis thinks he sees the start of something beautiful in their eyes. It's wonderful, really, because Zayn deserves it, deserves nothing but the best. 

Something protective surges in Louis's chest; at this point, he honestly just hopes he won't have to end up punching Tom, or anyone else, for Zayn in the near future. 

Liam and Danielle walk over then, and Louis steps away slightly from where he and Harry are pressed into each others' sides to give them each a hug. Before they even have the chance to make conversation, though, Louis's mom is calling his and Harry's names. "Will you two stand over here please? I really need pictures, you both look too handsome!"

Pink dusts Louis's cheeks at her words, but Harry just smiles brightly and walks over to where she's standing, Louis in tow. 

"Alright, ready? One, two -- "

Louis and Harry are standing with their arms around each others' waists, but at the last second, Harry tugs at Louis's waist and presses his lips to Louis's cheek. Louis laughs at the sudden contact, giggling embarrassingly as his arms move to wrap around Harry's neck just as Jay's camera snaps. 

"Oh!" she says happily, and Louis can see tears starting to form in her eyes. "That's darling!"

"Will you send that to me?" Harry's mom says from where she's appeared next to Jay, "I need to frame that, I think."

"Mommm," Harry groans, and Anne smirks at him, her smile almost identical to Harry's own smug one. Louis can't help the grin that's creeping across his face.

Louis then turns to smile up at Harry, stepping closer. "You're cute," he says quietly, and Harry looks down at him happily. "I'm sorry, what did you say? Could you repeat that?" Harry asks jokingly, and Louis scoffs, swatting his arm. "You're ridiculous."

Harry doesn't even bother to say anything back, just raises a hand to cup Louis's cheek. His skin is hot on Louis's face, and Louis's stomach swoops as Harry leans in to press a kiss against his lips. 

Louis reaches up to rest his hands on Harry's shoulders, his entire body buzzing in a way that it probably shouldn't -- it's been so long, after all, you'd think he'd have gotten used to this but nope -- when a camera flashes, effectively killing the moment. 

They pull apart suddenly, turning around to face where the flash came from, and Anne squeals. "Oh that's adorable!"

"You need to send that to me," Jay says just as happily, and Harry and Louis simultaneously roll their eyes. "Remind me when our mothers decided they needed to document every single thing we do?" Harry mutters into Louis's ear, and Louis laughs. "Can't blame 'em. We're a pretty fucking fabulous couple, if you ask me."

Harry laughs quietly into Louis's cheek, pressing a chaste kiss there. "I think so too."

"Alright, group photo time!" Jay calls out to the rest of the room. "Everyone line up around here with your dates please, and quickly, the party bus is waiting outside and you don't want to be late to prom! Oh this is so exciting!" She says the last part to Anne, who grins in agreement, and Louis can't help but laugh out loud. Their friendship is a weird one, really. 

Liam and Danielle are already close by, so they just stand together near Louis and Harry. Louis catches Liam's eye, and Liam smiles at him sweetly and sincerely, and Louis feels a sudden rush of affection for him. He feels like he doesn't show his appreciation for Liam as much as he should, and that needs to change -- no, it will change, that's a promise. 

Tom and Zayn make their way over to them, standing on Harry and Louis's right. Zayn wiggles his eyebrows at Louis, and Louis laughs again, loving the amount of sheer happiness emanating from his best friend's eyes. They don't need to say anything more to understand each other; they know perfectly well what's going on in the other's head in that moment.

Niall and Demi then appear on his left, and Niall nudges him lightly with his elbow. Louis turns, meeting Niall's wide grin with one of his own. Niall's grin then softens into a small smile, and he gives Louis a tiny nod, as if to say "Alright, I guess I'll admit it -- you've done good. I'm proud." Louis returns that with a small nod as well, in an attempt to say, "Thank you so fucking much for absolutely everything, I don't know what I'd do without you and I love you to death."

Harry leans in from behind him, his lips again grazing the shell of Louis's ear. "I love you," he whispers, and though this is hardly the first time they've said that to each other, Louis feels chills run down his spine, feels his heart expand and his hands and feet tingle and all is right in the world. 

"Smile!" Anne calls out, and they all beam at the cameras, and Louis doesn't think he's ever felt so complete and happy in his entire life. 

People always talk about how first loves never last, how it's nearly impossible to end up with your first love forever. 

Something about Harry, though, makes the mere notion of that seem like the funniest joke Louis's ever heard. Harry just makes Louis feel so warm, is the thing -- he feels so warm and loved when he's around him, and he's certain that Harry feels that way as well. It's different; there's no other way to describe it. He's never felt so certain about another person before, never felt so doubtless and secure. And yeah, people may scoff at him or laugh at him for thinking that Harry could be forever for him, but if they do, Louis will laugh right back in their faces, because they'd really have no idea what they're talking about. They don't know about Louis and Harry, they don't know about their relationship. 

And standing there, surrounded by his best friends, his family, and his boyfriend -- all of the people he loves most in the world -- he feels invincible. He doesn't need to think about how they're all graduating soon, about how most of them are going to separate corners of the fucking country -- Harry and Louis are thankfully close by, though, with Harry going to UCLA and Louis going to Occidental College -- or about how an entire chapter of his life is coming to an end. He doesn't think about the future, or about how there'll definitely be bumps in the road, or about how he probably should be worried, considering the fact that he's basically an adult now. 

Instead, he thinks about everything and everyone he loves. He thinks about how grateful he is to be surrounded by the most loving, caring, and considerate people in the entire fucking world. And he thinks about how happy he is to have someone like Harry stand right beside him, and about how happy he is that Harry will continue standing beside him through it all. 

****

Years and years later, when Harry and Louis have settled down and gotten married and had kids, Louis tells their children stories of how he and their father found each other -- stories about how much of a hero Uncle Zayn was, about how loyal and brave Uncle Niall was, and about how sweet and helpful Uncle Liam was before, after, and throughout it all. He looks into their bright, beautiful, innocent eyes and thinks about how someday, they're going to find their own paths, going to forge their own futures and find their own forevers, just like he and Harry did, together.

Their stories are only just beginning, and every chapter in each of their lives will be so unique and crazy and beautiful, different from each other's, different from his and Harry's, different from all the rest. He's so excited to be a part of it all, to be there for every twist and turn, every rise and fall. He thinks about that often, about how things are going to go, about what's going to happen next.

It makes him wonder.


	21. (extra)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Description: Louis has questions. Harry is more than happy to answer them -- but only if Louis answers a few questions of his own.  
> 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey again! Before you say anything, YES I KNOW that I only just finished this story a couple of days ago, and I KNOW it's probably a little soon to be posting an extra. But I got an idea, and I just had to write it because it makes me happy and I refuse to believe that this story is over. Hope you like it, enjoy (finally) getting a glimpse into Harry's mind :)

July 2015

****

"What made you change your mind?"

Harry turns his head lazily from where it was lolled back onto the couch cushion. He raises his eyebrows. "Come again?"

Louis can't help but smile as he walks over to his boyfriend from the entrance to the kitchen, popcorn and chips in hand. The main menu of "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" is on loop on the television, and Harry reluctantly leans forward from his comfortable position to grab the remote and mute it, plunging the room into a sudden silence. 

Louis sets the snacks on the coffee table, bags making crinkling noises as he does so. He then flops down onto the couch, and he and Harry curl into each other naturally, instinctively.

Louis sighs contentedly. "I dunno, I was thinking for a bit this morning, and I realized that we've never actually talked about this. What made you change your mind about me, during our junior year? On that first day you actually talked to me, when you were waiting by my locker...it was all kind of out of nowhere, wasn't it? I didn't really know what to do with myself. At first, I was certain you were joking around with me."

Harry doesn't say anything, and when Louis cranes forward to look at his face -- they're pressed so close together that merely turning wouldn't be enough to see Harry's face -- he sees that Harry's blushing. "Oh," Harry says finally, "That. Um. Funny story, actually. Long, too. Kind of embarrassing though."

"S'okay, we've got time. My mom's not going to be home from work for hours. You can talk for as long as you want," Louis says jokingly, but Harry just blushes harder. "But I want to watch the movie!"

"We will, there's plenty of time to do both. The faster you tell me, the sooner we'll get to watch itttt," he says in a sing-song voice. Harry presses his lips together and doesn't say anything.

After a little while, Louis gets impatient, and pokes Harry's cheek. "Tell meee," he whines, and Harry pouts. "I don't know..."

Alright, that's it then. Time to bring out the secret weapon.

He noses into Harry's neck, eliciting a shiver from him, before leaning back again and looking him dead in the eyes. He bites his lip and looks up at him from beneath his eyelashes. "Please?"

At first, Harry seems determined to not be swayed, but after a few seconds, his facade cracks. He sighs. "You're a menace." He untangles their limbs and turns so that he's sitting on the couch, facing Louis. Louis does the same, sitting criss-cross-applesauce like a toddler ready for storytime. Harry laughs at the eager expression on Louis's face. "You've got to promise that you won't laugh."

Louis smirks. "It's really that bad?"

"Sort of. Promise me."

Louis rolls his eyes. "Sure, I promise."

"And you also have to promise --"

"I never agreed to make any more promises, Harold -- "

"-- that you'll answer a question for me when I'm done."

"What question?"

"Not telling you."

Louis rolls his eyes, because what a fucking dork. He refuses to back down, though. "Fine. I promise."

Harry smiles smugly, satisfied. Louis sticks his tongue out at him. "C'mon Haz, talk!"

"Okay, okay. Well, like, I'd always thought you were cute, from the second I met you on that first day of school, when your backpack was blocking the aisle that one time -- "

Louis's cheeks redden at the memory. Harry's really got no idea. If he knew, what had been going through his mind on that first day...

"-- and like, when me and my friends would talk about hot people and stuff, I'd always bring you up." Harry winks, and Louis's cheeks turn a darker shade of pink. "But what really did it, to be honest, was your Spanish infomercial presentation."

Louis snorts, the blush on his cheeks fading, because what. "Are you serious?" 

"Yeah! I mean, I don't know. Before the presentation, I hadn't ever gotten the chance to really talk to you, partly because I was nervous -- because honestly, look at yourself, you're ridiculous -- and partly because you made it so difficult for me. You're so intelligent, and I'd been afraid I'd say something stupid that would make you think I'm dumb. Plus, you always looked so damn adorable, all half-asleep and cuddly in history class." Harry's grin grows soft here, and Louis's stomach swoops.

"Excuse you," Louis interrupts, resolutely ignoring the fact that his ears are so red that they're probably on fire right now, "I'd prefer being called something more along the lines of 'handsome' and 'rugged,' thanks."

Harry rolls his eyes. "Of course you would, babe." He pats Louis's cheek mockingly, and Louis pouts. "Anyways," Harry continues, "Seeing you up there, giving that presentation -- you were just so cute and confident and so, so funny. That just did something to me, I guess, because then I knew that not only are you cute, but you're also charming and hilarious and sweet. Suddenly, you were all I could think about -- well, even more so than was the case before."

Louis resists the urge to cough into his hand. He knows the feeling, he really does.

"I'd talk to my friends all the time, about how crazy I was for you -- still am, by the way. But I didn't know what to do, or how to talk to you more. It was as if suddenly, you'd become even more intimidating, because like, everything. And then that was magnified because you were always with Niall, and he's honestly one of the most intimidating people I've ever met."

Louis lets out an obnoxiously loud bark of laughter. "Niall? Intimidating? He's a fucking sunflower!"

Harry huffs. "Whatever. So, I just kept doing what I was doing, I guess, hoping that somehow I'd see an opportunity, or that you'd come talk to me, or something. I kept seeing you with all these guys, and I'd hear people talk about how cute they thought you were, and I'm not going to lie, I got pretty anxious. And irritated. I knew that I had to make some kind of move, but I was scared because I thought you might reject me, or something."

Louis muffles his laughter this time. Him? Reject Harry? He really was oblivious, wasn't he? That's hilarious.

"Then one day, I heard Chad talking to his friends about how he wanted to ask you to winter formal, and that kicked my ass into gear, I guess. I knew I had to do something, but I didn't want to weirdly and awkwardly ask you to the dance out of nowhere, so I decided to wait by your locker and try to talk to you and kind of become friends, or to at least become somewhat acquainted with each other. But I was so nervous and weird and embarrassing, and creepy, and I know you'd been weirded out and that I'd potentially come on a bit too strong that first time, but I had no idea what else to do. You made me so unbelievably nervous, more nervous than anyone's ever made me.

"Then I talked to Zayn about you, and whether or not it'd be a good idea to ask you to the dance. Him saying yes gave me some hope, and then we were assigned to be partners for the history project and it was all such perfect timing, I couldn't believe my luck. So I used the project as my excuse to get to know you even more, and then to ask you to the dance, and now here we are."

"So this is all thanks to Chad, then," Louis says, smiling wide.

Harry laughs quietly. "I guess," he says, smiling down at his lap, cheeks turning a bit pink.

"Awww," Louis coos, pinching Harry's cheek. "You're so adorable when you get all sappy." Louis is ignoring the part of his brain that's screaming to him that he's a hypocrite, because Louis himself is possibly the sappiest person on the planet when it comes to Harry. Still, knowing that Harry was actually into him for almost as long as Louis was into Harry makes him feel all warm and fuzzy inside, because aw. He's probably (definitely) dating the sweetest person in the universe.

Harry blushes again, and swats at Louis's hand. "Shush Lou, it's your turn now."

Louis wrinkles his nose. "Oh. Right. Are you sure I have to do this now? Maybe after the movie instead?" he says, reaching for the remote. 

Harry gently catches his wrist before he can grab it. "No, you promised me that you'd tell me! I basically poured my heart out to you."

Louis sighs loudly. "Fine, I suppose you can tell me what your question is."

Harry beams. "Fantastic. So my question is: why did you say yes when I asked you to formal? You didn't exactly seem interested in me at the time, at least in my opinion. I was terrified, went out on a total limb and if Zayn hadn't told me to go for it I probably would've chickened out. So why did you go with me?" 

Louis blanches. "Oh. Um."

Harry widens his eyes at Louis in an attempt to guilt-trip him, and Louis scowls, because it's definitely working. 

"Okay okay I'll tell you. I'm warning you, though, it's probably a longer story than yours."

Harry's face lights up like a Christmas tree. "Like you said, we've got time." 

Louis sighs, but he finds that he can't say no to Harry, not when his entire face is shining with so much happiness. 

So with that, Louis takes a deep breath, looks Harry in his sparkling eyes, and tells him his story -- albeit a shortened version, because this is a story that, if told in its entirety, would probably fill up, like, twenty whole chapters of a book or something.

Afterwards, when Harry is peppering his face with loving kisses -- the movie forgotten altogether -- he makes a decision. Yup. He's definitely got to send Chad a thank you note.


	22. (extra no. 2)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry's leaving.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This wasn't supposed to happen, but it did. (Italics don't transfer over, and they should.)
> 
> *WARNING: This chapter includes a mention of minor character deaths as well as a somewhat detailed war-related discussion, so if you're not comfortable with that then don't read!

February 2021

****

"Three years?"

Harry isn't looking at him.

"Babe," Louis says quietly, trying his hardest to keep his voice steady. He gently tilts Harry's chin up. "Harry."

He swallows thickly as he finally locks eyes with Harry, his greens tinged with gray. They're full of childlike fear and nerves as they roam over Louis's face, searchingly. 

"They only just told me today," Harry rumbles quietly in his velvet voice. "I have a few months, but then, yes. Three years."

Louis exhales shakily. "Oh."

They sit there in silence for a bit, Louis's eyes boring into a crack in one of the tiles on their kitchen floor. He's trying so fucking hard to keep the tears back, but his lip is wobbling and he doesn't know how to fucking respond to this, how the fuck is he supposed to -- 

"Louis," Harry says in that tone of his, and his voice cracks and then that's it, Louis's done.

His shoulders shudder as the sobs take over, and Harry wraps his strong arms around Louis's smaller frame, Louis burying his face in Harry's shoulder. 

"B-but what if," Louis blubbers through tears, "what if something happens to you?"

"Highly unlikely babe," Harry says. He swallows thickly. "You -- you know that my specialty is air traffic control. I've got my own little space, away from any danger."

"You don't know th-that!" Louis says through his tears. "You'll still be near there, like -- what if they try to -- to do something to your base or --"

Harry pulls away slightly and sets his hands on Louis's shoulders. "Lou," he says quietly, eyes slightly misty with tears. "Lou, listen to me."

Louis rubs at his eyes furiously, focusing on steadying his breathing. After a minute or so, he's mostly under control. 

Harry leans forward and presses a gentle kiss to Louis's forehead. "You have nothing to worry about, love. I'm not going to be in the midst of any fighting, or anything of the sort. I'm just there to make sure that everything goes the way it's planned. Nothing is going to happen to me."

Louis bites his lip. "P-promise?"

"Yes," Harry says sincerely. "I promise, I swear with everything I've got. I'm going to come back after three years. Nothing's going to happen to me."

Louis looks into Harry's eyes for a beat longer, looking for any doubt -- and he finds none. His lip wobbles again despite himself though, as he nods and pulls Harry in for another hug. 

"And we'll Skype every day?"

Harry presses a kiss to the top of Louis's head. "Yes, that's a guarantee."

Louis sniffles, and then lets out a watery laugh. "I remember," he begins, pulling away from Harry so that he can look at his face, "back when we were in high school, in our junior year, before we started dating. I was sitting in our Spanish class one day, looking at all those little projects we had made that our teacher hung up on the wall, and I saw yours. You wrote on it that you had wanted to be in the Air Force, and I'd thought that was really fucking hot."

Harry laughs, eyes crinkling at the corners. "And do you still?" he asks teasingly, dimple creasing his cheek. 

Louis smiles up at him, and presses his thumb into the dent in Harry's cheek. "Of course, babe. Even all these years later," he says with a wink and another sniffle, laughing when Harry lets out a whiny "Heeeeyyyy."

And for a moment, he forgets about it.

****

May 2021

****

The night before Harry is set to leave, Harry and Louis paint their bedroom with stars, each breath a galaxy of their thoughts. Harry wraps Louis in light, in gold -- the same way he always has, since the very first day they met -- and Louis lets slip a few shiny tears, each droplet full of stamped-out sparks.

****

Louis is at the airport, and Louis is crying. 

Zayn is sitting by his side, rubbing his back comfortingly as tears quietly stream down Louis's face. He helplessly looks toward the hallway that Harry disappeared through not even a minute ago.

"God, Zayn, I know we both knew this would happen, the second he enlisted in that Air Force Academy after he graduated from college. And I knew it would be hard," he says quietly, voice shaky, "But I didn't know it would be this fucking hard."

Zayn puts his arm around Louis's shoulder, and Louis curls into him. "You'll get through it, Lou," he says soothingly. "We'll get through it. I've got you, as always."

Louis squeezes Zayn's arm meaningfully, thanking his lucky stars that he's got a friend as amazing as Zayn, a friend who's stuck by him since the very beginning -- and who is there for him now, once again.

"Thanks, Z."

"Of course, Lou. Of course."

****

They manage.

He and Harry Skype every single night -- which is daytime, for Harry -- but it's never enough. Louis wants to hold Harry, wants to feel him sitting there beside him. He misses him so much that he feels as though his heart is constantly aching. Harry is always on his mind. 

(The bed is cold and empty, foreign without Harry there beside him.)

It's hard for both of them, and it's scary all the fucking time -- but he knows that Harry can take care of himself, and he tries his hardest to let as few tears as possible slip every time they speak. Because Harry promised. And Harry doesn't break promises.

He just loves him so fucking much, is the thing, loves him so much that he can't breathe just thinking about him sometimes.

He looks at pictures and videos of them that he's saved on his phone every day, pictures and videos of them during holidays and them on dates and them just messing around -- even some pictures that he vaguely remembers his mother taking on the day of their high school prom. He smiles through the tears as he looks at those in particular, because god, they look so fucking young and ridiculous.

It passes by slowly, but with each red "X" that Louis draws every evening on the calendar hanging by his and Harry's bed, Louis knows he's getting closer.

****

November 2022

****

One night, Harry doesn't call.

Louis has Skype opened and set up on his laptop, waiting for the little green bubble with the check mark in it to appear next to Harry's name, the same way it does every night at eight. It doesn't pop up.

He waits until eight thirty, nine. Thinks that maybe something came up, maybe they had to get up earlier than usual for a meeting or something.

When ten o'clock rolls around, Louis starts to fucking panic. 

He tries calling Harry's cell phone, the one Harry bought and set up specifically in case there was an emergency and Louis needed to get ahold of him. He calls and calls and Harry never answers and Louis is going to cry, he's going to cry and break down and he doesn't know what to do with himself.

So naturally, he does what he always does when he's panicked.

"Hello?" Zayn shouts through the speaker, having finally picked up the third time Louis called him. There's loud music and noise in the background, and Louis has to strain to hear him, but he doesn't give a fucking shit.

"Zayn," Louis says breathlessly, "I know you're probably really busy right now and I'm really sorry for that but Harry won't fucking go on Skype."

"Who won't go on what?" 

"Skype, Zayn, Skype. We Skype every night at eight, and I waited until ten and he still hasn't logged on. What if something happened to him Zayn?! I don't fucking know what I'd do and I can't fucking breathe and I don't know how to handle this right now, help me please." His voice is thick and foreign in his own ears.

There's a bit of pause before he hears Zayn's voice again. "Hold on Lou," he says loudly, and then Louis hears Zayn say something unintelligible but after a few more seconds there's much less background noise. 

"Sorry bro, Liam and I are at a club. Here," there's another pause, "now you're on speaker."

"Louis are you okay?" Liam asks immediately, and Louis has to take a deep breath to hold back the tears. "No, boys, I don't think I am," he replies shakily. 

"Just breathe, babes," Zayn says reassuringly, "and tell us again what happened."

Louis is babbling through the second explanation, and he knows he sounds like a fucking idiot and that he's interrupting their night out but he can't do this, he honestly, really can't.

"Okay, don't jump to conclusions," Liam says as soon as Louis's finished talking. "You honestly never know. This could be as simple as a Wi-Fi issue. Maybe their internet broke down!" 

"Okay yeah, but as long as we're talking what-ifs -- what if someone fucking bombed the base?!"

There's a long moment of silence on the other end, and Louis squeezes his eyes shut, pinching the bridge of his nose. 

"He has that phone, doesn't he?" Zayn says gently, "Have you tried calling?"

"Loads of times. It's ringing, but he's not answering. If this were just a Wi-Fi issue he definitely would've called me, or at least would answer his phone!"

Another moment of silence.

"Lou, there's no way you can know for sure what's going on right now," Liam says slowly, "and it won't do you any good to think about worst-case scenarios. Let's -- " there's a quick pause and a rustling sound, "can we come over? Let's get our stuff and go to Louis's, Zayn," Liam's voice becomes less prominent as he addresses Zayn, probably having turned to him and pulled the phone away.

Zayn then says something that sounds like "Way ahead of you," and then there's more rustling as Zayn takes the phone and turns it off speaker. "We're on our way Louis."

"No," Louis says weakly, "I really don't want to ruin your night, it's still early."

"Louis please, just -- here take your jacket Liam -- just shut your mouth you dipshit," is all Zayn says before the line goes dead. 

****

Liam and Zayn bring Chinese food and hugs. 

"Have you tried calling again?" Liam asks the second Louis opens the door. 

"Yeah," Louis says, voice muffled into Zayn's shoulder as his best friend pulls him into a hug. "I've been trying every five minutes. No answer."

Liam pulls him into a hug next as Zayn sets the food on the counter, checks Louis's laptop. "Still offline," he states, and Louis nods. "Nothing," he whispers, voice shaking. "There's nothing. I don't know what to do. This is my worst fear, my very worst fear."

No one says anything in response. 

****

They set up camp.

Louis continues calling. Zayn's on Skype duty. Liam goes on social media sites -- sending messages through Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, even email -- checking anything and everything that Harry could use to communicate with them.

They stay up all night. Harry doesn't contact them.

****

Liam and Zayn leave at around eight in the morning, promising to come back in a few hours and bring them all lunch. Louis is broken, utterly fucking broken. 

He sits at the kitchen counter, phone plugged into the wall and open to Harry's number. His laptop is plugged in as well, with multiple tabs open on Chrome, along with Skype. Every time someone logs onto Skype a hope-filled bubble swells inside of Louis's chest, and every single fucking time his entire being deflates because it's never Harry.

He continues calling, continues refreshing windows. He doesn't allow himself to think. He can't.

Harry promised.

****

"You need to fucking sleep, Louis," Liam insists almost angrily when he and Zayn arrive at Louis's around one in the afternoon, bag of sandwiches and chips in hand. 

Louis laughs deliriously in answer.

He sees Liam and Zayn give each other a long look out of the corner of his eye, and Zayn sighs. He walks over to Louis, puts a gentle hand on his shoulder. "Babes, Liam and I can call him. You need to get some rest, this isn't good for you."

"But," Louis says, hitting the call button again on his phone and raising it to his ear, "you two were up all night with me as well. You can sleep for now, I'm not tired."

"Louis please," Zayn almost begs, "We just slept for a few hours. You need to rest."

Louis looks from Liam to Zayn, at both of their earnest faces, and sighs. He knows he's been overruled. 

He stands up slowly, ending the call when it goes to voicemail and setting his phone back on the counter. "Call him as often as you'd like but don't wait longer than thirty minutes between calls. Don't unplug my phone or laptop. Keep refreshing." His voice sounds dead, even to his ears. It scares him. 

Liam nods seriously. "Don't worry Louis, we can do this. We'll let you know as soon as we hear anything."

Zayn gets a water bottle from the fridge and pushes it into Louis's hand. "Go on to bed, and drink this. D'you want any tea?"

Louis shakes his head slowly, the cold water bottle numbing his fingers. He turns around without saying a word, walks the few steps to the couch and lies down, setting the water bottle down on the floor next to him.

Liam and Zayn share another look. "Don't you think you'd be more comfortable in bed?" Liam asks tentatively, and Louis shakes his head. "I'm good here."

Liam lets out a small sigh, shrugs at Zayn and pulls out a chair at the kitchen counter. 

Louis turns to face the back of the couch, and then notices Harry's sweater lying across the top of the cushions near his feet. He had worn it to bed the night before last, right after he video chatted Harry.

He sits up to grab it, curls it up into a ball and lays his head on top of it. He turns his face into the soft gray fabric and lets slip a few tears, trying his hardest not to shake. 

****

The next thing he registers is opening his eyes sleepily, feeling a hand on his arm shaking him awake. "Louis!" Liam is saying much too loudly, "Louis get up! Harry called, get up now!" 

Louis sits bolt upright, grabbing for the phone in Liam's hands. "Haz, babe?" His voice comes out croaky, and he clears his throat. "Are you okay?"

"Louis," Harry says shakily, voice full of relief. "Louis baby I love you, I love you so much."

Louis takes a deep breath and wow okay he's crying. "I love you too Harry, I love you too. Please tell me though, are you alright? We've been worried sick for hours, what's happening?"

Harry pauses. "We were hit," he says shakily, sounding so small and so sad. Louis wants nothing more than to gather him up in his arms and hold him close, press a kiss onto his chest where his heart is and never let go. "We were sleeping, and we heard a loud noise and people shouting and then there was this huge explosion. All I could do was grab my helmet and shit and run, I didn't have time for my phone or laptop and I'm so sorry we couldn't talk sooner, I didn't mean to worry you or Liam or Zayn." He sniffles, and Louis's heart breaks. "I was only just able to get a new phone, literally two minutes ago. The first thing I did was call you." 

"Please don't apologize babe. Are you hurt at all?"

"I'm okay. A few scrapes, sprained my ankle trying to get out and my left eardrum was damaged a bit but I'll be alright. Some of the others though --" Harry clears his throat, and Louis hears him sniff again. "Not -- not everyone made it."

Louis doesn't know what to say. His eyes well up once more with tears, and he ignores Liam and Zayn's silent questioning and curious gazes. "I'm so sorry Harry," is all he can manage to get out, and then Harry's crying, crying so hard and Louis can do nothing but let his own tears fall and clutch at Harry's sweatshirt. 

Liam and Zayn rush to sit on either side of Louis, curling into him, and Louis pulls them closer as thanks. "I love you Haz," Louis says weakly into the phone, "So much."

****

June 2024

****

Three years is a long time, but they're strong. And they manage.

Louis is at the airport again -- but this time, Louis is buzzing. Zayn and Liam are there with him, along with Niall. 

He notices early on that Liam's arm is around Zayn's waist -- they're trying to be discreet about it, but they're failing miserably. All things considered, Louis probably should've seen it coming, especially with all the time the two of them have been spending together recently. He wonders if Harry suspected at all. They'll have to talk about it later.

Right now, though, Louis doesn't have the patience or the mental capacity to ask questions, to think about anything other than the fact that his boyfriend is fucking coming home after being deployed for three fucking years.

"We should've brought balloons, or a banner, or something," Louis says nervously as he paces back and forth, and Zayn sighs loudly. "Lou, we've already set up stuff for his surprise party back at your house. Stop being an idiot."

Louis glares at Zayn over his shoulder, and Liam laughs. 

"Listen, Lou," Niall calls out, "Come sit down. He's not going to be here for another few minutes, might as well save your energy for when you see him. God knows you two will need it." He mutters the last sentence, eliciting another happy laugh from Liam.

Louis rolls his eyes and waves him off without saying a word, continuing to walk around, tap his toes, fidget with his fingers, bite his lip. He keeps staring at the escalator a little ways away from where they're gathered by baggage claim, the escalator that's bringing Harry home. 

"God, I'm so fucking nervous," Louis mutters, looking frantically over at his friends. Zayn sighs again. "Didn't you two speak, like, yesterday?"

"Yes, but this is different, Zayn, and you know it," Louis hisses. "I haven't seen my boyfriend in three fucking years. That's a really long fucking time."

Liam turns to Zayn and whispers something in his ear -- Louis catches be considerate and don't be mean -- before Zayn rolls his eyes fondly and slouches slightly, saying nothing more.

Then Louis sees people arriving on the escalator, and he squeaks. "Holy shit," he breathes, "Those -- those are the people on Harry's flight, they're coming here and -- shit, and Harry's coming home, oh my fucking god." It's so fucking unreal to him, he still can't grasp it. 

The next few moments happen in flashes. 

Louis turns away from his friends to watch the escalator again, and then he sees the bottoms of camo pants slowly coming down the moving steps, and then -- painfully slowly -- a camo-covered torso, and then a broad chest and finally Harry's searching eyes, the green bright even from this distance. 

Harry covers his mouth with his hand upon seeing Louis, and Louis feels his lip tremble, and holy shit, that's -- that's Harry. His Harry.

And then Harry's stepping onto the polished, squeaky airport floor, and then Louis's running, faster than he's ever run in his life. 

He's crying by the time he jumps into Harry's arms, breathing in Harry's skin, holding onto him tighter than he ever has. 

Harry picks him up and spins him around, and Louis feels Harry's chest shuddering a bit against his own, and god, he loves his boy so fucking much. 

"You kept your promise," Louis breathes as he peppers Harry's face with kisses, and Harry sniffles as he puts Louis down. "Did you ever think I wouldn't?" Despite his attempt at teasing, his eyes are screwed up in his effort to hold back the tears, and Louis's heart is going to burst.

"Oh babe," Louis says quietly, wiping at Harry's tears. "I'm -- I'm sorry," Harry says, his words broken up by sobs. He presses his forehead against Louis's, cupping his face in his hands. "I just missed you so much, Louis, so fucking much. You look amazing, by the way, absolutely beautiful."

Louis blushes at the compliment, and grips Harry's shoulders tightly. He still can't believe Harry can do that to him, that after years of them dating, he still blushes the way he used to when he'd talk to Harry before they even got together.

Thinking back, it's amazing how far they've come -- not only as a couple, but as people. If anyone would have told Louis, at the time, that in a few years he'd be meeting Harry -- his boyfriend Harry, who's in the Air Force -- at the airport post-deployment, he'd laugh in their face. "You too, babe, you too. I missed you so fucking much."

They just stand there for a moment before Louis closes the barely-there distance between them and kisses Harry, kisses him like he's wanted to kiss him for the last three fucking years.

"Marry me," Harry suddenly says as he pulls away with a gasp, and Louis freezes. "W-what?"

"Marry me, Louis," Harry says, as another tear streams down his face. "We've been together for years, and we've talked about wanting to get married but we haven't had time or done it properly and -- and I don't have a ring right now so this isn't even necessarily doing it properly but I just want you -- I want you all the time and everywhere and in every way." He leans in so that their lips are barely touching, and hovers there. "Louis Tomlinson," he says into Louis's lips, "Marry me."

And that brings on a fresh wave of tears, and Louis's nodding fervently and kissing Harry again and again and again -- and they're in their own world, in their own place where no one can come between them, a place where all that matters is LouisAndHarry.

Louis could never have asked for anything more.


End file.
